Upscaling of biohydrogen production process in semi-pilot scale biofilm reactor: Evaluation with food waste at variable organic loads

• Upscaling of biohydrogen production with semi-pilot scale biofilm reactor.
• Optimization of organic load of food waste for efficient H2 production.
• Increment in organic load showed marked influence on H2 production.
• System redox condition limited the H2 production at higher loading rate.

The present account focuses on upscaling of biohydrogen (H2) production at semi-pilot scale bioreactor using composite food waste. Experiments were conducted at different organic load (6, 12, 18, 30, 40, 50 and 66 g COD/l) conditions. H2 production increased with an increasing organic load up to 50 g COD/l (9.67 l/h) followed by 40 g COD/l (6.48 l/h), 30 g COD/l (1.97 l/h), 18 g COD/l (0.90 l/h), 12 g COD/l (0.78 l/h) and 6 g COD/l (0.32 l/h). H2 production was affected by acidification (pH drop to 3.96) at 66 g COD/l operation due to the excess accumulation of soluble metabolites (5696 mg VFA/l). Variation in organic load of food waste influenced the overall hydrogen production efficiency.