Surfactant-enhanced biohydrogen production from organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) via dry anaerobic digestion

The influence of surfactant addition on the hydrogen fermentative of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste was extensively investigated under thermophilic conditions (55 ± 2 °C) in batch cultures. The addition of Tween 80® (T80) and polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000®) substantially improved hydrogen yields (HYs) resulting in 109.9 ± 7.1 and 113.8 ± 7.7 mlH2/gCarb.initial at T80 and PEG 6000® concentrations not exceeding 2.8% and 16.7 g/L, respectively. A combination of 2.8% T80 with 1.7 g/L PEG 6000® achieved slightly higher HYs of 116.7 ± 5.2 mlH2/gCarb.initial. An artificial neural network model reliably represented the relationship between the surfactant concentration and hydrogen production with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.980. Microbial community analysis of the batches supplemented with 2.8% T80 and 1.7 g/L PEG 6000® showed the dominance of the hydrogen-producing bacteria Enterobacter, Escherichia, Buttiauxella, and Pantoea. The study confirms the potential of surfactant addition for H2 production from wastes containing organics in a particulate form.