Produzione di idrogeno con batteri fotosintetici da effluente di impianto di biometanazione di residui dell’agroindustria

Hydrogen is a clean fuel. Its combustion produces just water and energy. The opportunity of obtaining renewable energy from vegetable residues largely available makes microbiological processes an interesting perspective. Aim of this research activity was to evaluate the possibility of inserting the photofermentative hydrogen producing process after or in between the acidogenic and/or methanogenic stages. The whole process was conducted starting from selected vegetable residues deriving from department stores. The study showed how the characteristics of the vegetable substrate chosen had an influence on the whole process; a high conversion yield of the substrate to energy was obtained when producing hydrogen by photofermentation using the effluent of the acidogenic stage as a substrate. Furthermore, light intensity showed to be very important for obtaining better production rates. Indeed, the only possible applicative solutions for proposing photobiological hydronen production as an economically and energetically sustainable process are the use of both wastes as substrates and sunlight as the light source.