Performance of a Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans gas lift reactor for syngas upgrading into hydrogen

From National Research Council Canada

Author	Search for: Haddad, M.¹; Search for: Guiot, S. R.¹
Affiliation	National Research Council of Canada. Energy, Mining and Environment
Format	Text, Article
Conference	Bioenergy Australia 2013, November 25-26, 2013, Hunter Valley, NSW
Subject	carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans; carbon monoxide; hydrogen; gas-lift bioreactor; continuous; gas-liquid mass transfer
Abstract	The conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) into hydrogen (H2) by a Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans pure culture was investigated and optimized in a 35 L gas-lift reactor. The reactor was operated with a continuous supply of gas for 3 months. Reactor performance was evaluated under various operational conditions, such as gas recirculation rates (0.3 and 1.5 L•min-1), CO feeding rates (from 0.05 to 0.46 mol•L-1reactor•day–1) and bacto-peptone addition to the medium. Overall, the H2 yields were constant at 95±1% and 82±1% (molH2•mol–1CO) with growth supported by peptone and unsupported respectively, regardless of the operational conditions tested. At the highest biomass density, a maximum CO conversion activity of 0.17 molCO•L–1reactor•day-1 or 3.79 LCO•L-1reactor•day-1 was achieved. The ratio of gas recirculation over CO feed flow rates (QR:Qin) was the major parameter that impacted both biological activity and volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer. The CO conversion performance of the gas lift reactor was kinetically limited over a QR:Qin ratio of 40, and mass transfer limited below that ratio, resulting in a maximum conversion efficiency of 90.4±0.3% and a biological activity of 2.7±0.4 molCO•g– 1VSS•day–1. Overall, the CO conversion performance in the gas-lift reactor was limited by a low cell density, typical of C. hydrogenoformans planktonic growth. This limitation was found to be the most restrictive factor for higher CO loading rates.
Language	English
Peer reviewed	No
NRC number	NRC-EME-55634 EME-MTL-0020 EME-MTL-0023
NPARC number	21275981
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Record identifier	ea827aa1-31ce-46ee-ac3a-f1d1b445dd1b
Record created	2015-08-25
Record modified	2020-04-22

Date modified:: 2024-12-26