[Factors of effecting hydrogen production from anaerobic fermentation of excess sewage sludge]

Large amounts of sewage sludge is produced from the treatment of wastewater by biological processes, which is usually treated by anaerobic digestion to produce methane gas. Acetogenesis and hydrogen are an intermediate phase during the anaerobic digestion. Batch tests of fermentative hydrogen production under different initial pH (3.0 - 12.5) were compared using the raw sludge and alkaline pretreated sludge. The influences of the characteristics and concentration of sludge were also examined thereafter. Results show that the optimal initial pH for biohydrogen production from sewage sludge was around 11.0. Under this optimal condition, the biohydrogen yield of raw sludge was 8.1 mL/g, and it would reach to 16.9 mL/g when the sludge was pretreated by alkali. Furthermore, there is no methane generation during the biohydrogen fermentation of the alkaline pretreatment sludge in 4 days and the hydrogen consumption is also slowed down. In addition, a low VSS/SS rate will reduce the hydrogen yield, while the concentrations of sludge have no obvious compact on it.