Bioconversion of waste office paper to hydrogen using pretreated rumen fluid inoculum

In this study, a microbial consortium from an acid-treated rumen fluid was used to improve the yields of H₂ production from paper residues in batch reactors. The anaerobic batch reactors, which contained paper and cellulose, were operated under three conditions: (1) 0.5 g paper/L, (2) 2 g paper/L, and (3) 4 g paper/L. Cellulase was added to promote the hydrolysis of paper to soluble sugars. The H₂ yields were 5.51, 4.65, and 3.96 mmol H₂/g COD, respectively, with substrate degradation ranging from 56 to 65.4 %. Butyric acid was the primary soluble metabolite in the three reactors, but pronounced solventogenesis was detected in the reactors incubated with increased paper concentrations (2.0 and 4.0 g/L). A substantial prevalence of Clostridium acetobutylicum (99 % similarity) was observed in the acid-treated rumen fluid, which has been recognized as an efficient H₂-producing strain in addition to ethanol and n-butanol which were also detected in the reactors.