RESEARCH ARTICLE


Application of Pretreatment, Bioaugmentation and Biostimulation for Fermentative Hydrogen Production from Maize Silage



Vizma Nikolajeva1, *, Miks Neibergs1, Sintija Valucka1, Ilze Dimanta1, Janis Kleperis2
1 Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Kronvalda blvd. 4, Riga, LV-1586, Latvia
2 Laboratory of Hydrogen Energy Materials, Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Kengaraga str. 8, Riga, LV-1063, Latvia


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
1
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 1520
Abstract HTML Views: 1998
PDF Downloads: 951
Total Views/Downloads: 4469
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 730
Abstract HTML Views: 1077
PDF Downloads: 653
Total Views/Downloads: 2460



Creative Commons License
© 2015 Nikolajeva et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University of Latvia, Kronvalda blvd. 4, Riga, LV-1586, Latvia; Tel/Fax: +371 67034868; E-mail: vizma.nikolajeva@lu.lv


Abstract

Bacteria produce hydrogen during anaerobic dark digestion of carbon rich natural resources including renewable cellulosic materials. The purpose of this work was to study the impact of maize silage pretreatment with Trichoderma fungi, bioaugmentation with defined bacterial inocula and/ or biostimulation with humic acids and an additional inorganic nitrogen source on the fermentative hydrogen production in laboratory batch assay. Experiments were carried out with and without Trichoderma asperellum pretreated silage. The selected bacterial inocula consisted of Clostridium, Enterobacter and Tissierella species, with or without Bacillus mycoides. Headspace gas composition, the amount of dry particulate matter, chemical oxygen demand and concentration of volatile fatty acids in liquid were determined. Bacterial communities were studied with fluorescence in situ hibridization. The predominant cultivable microbial species were isolated and identified. The study demonstrated a significant increase of hydrogen production from maize silage by indigenous bacteria after pretreatment with Trichoderma in comparison with silage untreated with Trichoderma. From tested factors, pretreatment, biostimulation with additional nutrients (ammonium nitrate and/ or humic acids) and bioaugmentation with defined bacterial inocula, pretreatment demonstrated significant improvement of hydrogen production from maize silage. Thereby, aerobic treatment with Trichoderma could be recommended for the pretreatment of silage for the purpose of fermentative production of hydrogen.

Keywords: Bacteria, bioaugmentation, biostimulation, dark fermentation, hydrogen, maize silage, Trichoderma.