The increasing energy demands have resulted in hydrogen being used in biofuel production. Hydrogen is highly demanded because of its high energy content, which is 121 kJ/g, making it efficient for electricity and clean combustion uses (Nualsri,Kongjan,Reungsang, & Imai,2017). Several factors influence the fermentation process through which hydrogen is produced. One such factor is hydrogen partial pressure, which can adversely affect the production process.Forthwith, gas sparging is used to control the partial pressure of the gas. Correspondingly, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are used for the sparging process of hydrogen.

The researchers used several materials in the project. Sugarcane syrup was used in hydrogen fermentation. Equally, inocula preparation entailing Clostridium butyricum TISTR1032 was utilized for hydrogen production (Nualsri et al., 2017). A two-stage reactor process involving a CSTR and UASB reactors, which were fitted into the buffer tank was used to facilitate fermentation.  Dark fermentation was used in the first process while the anaerobic digestion was used in the second stage. Comparatively, carbon dioxide sparging was more effective than using nitrogen. Daily gas sampling at the port of the CSTR reactor to analyze the gas.

The two-stage digestion process is effective for hydrogen production. The process creates methane, which is valuable in hydrogen sparging. Further, after upgrading the system, it is possible to mix ethane and hydrogen, forming the gas hythane, which has high energy content (Nualsri et al., 2017). Methane was effective in sparging the hydrogen gas and resulted in high hydrogen production by 35% in the long run.

References

Nualsri, C., Kongjan, P., Reungsang, A., &Imai, T. (2017) Effect of biogas Sparging on the Performance of Bio-Hydrogen Reactor over a Long-Term Operation. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0171248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171248

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