BIOHYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM POME USING COMPARTMENTALIZED REACTOR
Compartmentalized reactor consists of three compartments
inside. The used of the compartments inside are to removed the hydrogen from reactor whereby can reduced the partial pressure of hydrogen. The compartments attach can result in reduction of partial pressure thus increased hydrogen yield. The reactor without the compartments will reduce the hydrogen yield due to the high partial pressure of hydrogen.
The mixer is not provider in the reactor because the presence of
the compartments. The reactor without a mixer makes difficulty to homogenous the contents inside. Thus, the difficulty has been solved by design a mixer and place inside the reactor. The reactor has been set up to the temperature inside reactor, ambient temperature, pH, nitrogen gas
tank, gas holder and feeding tank of POME. Temperature inside the reactor is controlled by the water bath outside the reactor. pH probe in the reactor is place in the rector and connected to the pH controller. It is to maintain the reactor contents pH at 5.5. The adjustment of pH increased or decreased by pump in of NAOH and HCl into the reactor. The pH adjustment is important due to the fermentation process POME will produce acidic compound.
The effective volume contents in the reactor is 6L out of 8L
volume of reactor. The remaining volume at the top of the reactor is the accumulation chamber of gas produced. It is connected by a tube of water seal port. The water seal port is connected to the gas holder through a tube. Hydrogen gas that produced at the three compartments also connected to the gas holder. A septum is attached in between of reactor, water seal port and gas holder. It functions to suck out the biogas by using the gas tight syringe then followed by GC analysis.
The discharge volumes of the reactor are measured every day in
order to know the flow rates of the reactor. The volumes are measured by collect it into a container. Sampling of effluent and influent has to be taken in the selected day of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The effluent and influent samples have to be analyze with a routine analysis of Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Volatile Suspended Solid (VSS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Carbohydrate and Protein analysis. In the same time, the gas collected has to be analyzed by using the gas chromatography with thermal conductivity detector (GC-TCD).
