Effects of inoculum and indigenous microflora on hydrogen production from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste

• H2 production from municipal organic waste is feasible without addition of inoculum.
• H2 production obtained without inoculum was comparable to that with inoculum.
• Indigenous microbiota showed high hydrogen yields although with a 6 day latency phase.

Biological production of hydrogen (H2) by dark fermentation is an exciting scientific area for the conversion of low-cost residues and waste into biofuel. The main requirement for an efficient H2 production process is the availability of efficient microbial consortia in which H2-utilizing and non-H2-producing bacteria are suppressed. This study was performed to evaluate the H2 production potentials from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with and without addition of inoculum. The results showed that hydrogen productions from OFMSW without addition of inoculum were comparable to those obtained with inoculum but a latency phase of about 6 days occurred. On the contrary, addition of inoculum resulted in higher H2 production potentials without any latency phase. The use of a properly pre-treated inoculum confirmed to be an interesting and improvable tool to obtain high H2 yields from organic waste. However the indigenous OFMSW microbiota showed promising hydrogen yields especially toward the development of efficient hydrogen producing microbial inoculants.