Fermentative biohydrogen production in a novel biodisc bioreactor: Principle and Improvement

[en] In order to produce hydrogen at high yields and production rates, the biotechnological process needs to be further optimized and efficient bioreactors must be designed. A biodisc bioreactor has been design and investigated to produce biohydrogen from glucose by the Clostridium butyricum CWBI1009 strain at a high yield and production rate. This reactor, working continuously, has an internal volume of 2.3l but a working volume (liquid phase) of 300ml. Firstly, it enhances the hydrogen production rate (by about 3 times more than a completely stirred bioreactor) by partially fixing the bacteria on the porous support and thus increasing the cell concentration in the bioreactor (decoupling of HRT and SRT). Secondly, the rotating biodisc design enables efficient gas transfer (hydrogen and carbon dioxyde) from the liquid phase where it is produced by the bacteria to the headspace. Indeed, this is an important way to increase hydrogen production yields (by about 25% compared to a completely stirred bioreactor) by allowing the bacteria to focus on the metabolites pathways that produce more hydrogen. Other reactors designs have shown such good results by increasing the interfacial surface.