Biomedical subjects

Jong-Ho Youn

Publications and source records attributed to Jong-Ho Youn.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Conversion of food waste into hydrogen by thermophilic acidogenesis.

Conversion of food waste into hydrogen by thermophilic acidogenesis was investigated as a function of organic loading rate (OLR), hydraulic retention time (HRT) and pH in a continuous stirred tank reactor. In order to identify hydrogen-producing microorganisms, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)--amplified V3 region of 16S rDNA analysis was conducted at each tested pH. The conversion of food waste into hydrogen was strongly influenced by the operational conditions. The hydrogen production was increased as OLR increased up to 8 gVSl(-1) d(-1), but drastically decreased at 10 gVSl(-1) d(-1). The yield of hydrogen was decreased from 2.2 to 1.0 mol-H2/mol-hexose consumed as HRT decreased from 5 to 2 days. More carbohydrates in the food waste were decomposed at longer HRT, 76-90%, at HRT of 2-5 days. The hydrogen production peaked at pH 5.5+/-0.1 and significantly decreased at pH 5.0+/-0.1. The biogas produced was composed of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, but no methane was detected at all tested conditions. The hydrogen contents in the gas produced were more than 55% (v/v) and not sensitive to all tested conditions. The optimum operational condition for continuous hydrogen production from the food waste was obtained at 8 gVSl(-1)d(-1), 5 days HRT and pH 5.5+/-0.1 where the hydrogen production rate, content, yield and the efficiency of carbohydrate decomposition were 1.01 H2/l-d, 60.5% (v/v), 2.2 mol-H2/mol-hexose consumed and 90%, respectively. The hydrogen production was related with the concentration of total organic acids (TOA) which was strongly dependent on that of butyrate indicating that the reaction was mainly butyrate fermentation. The hydrogen-producing microorganism of Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum that involved in acetate/butyrate fermentation, was detected with strong intensity at all tested pHs by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)--amplified V3 region of 16S rDNA analysis and sensitive to the tested pHs. The experimental results indicated that effective hydrogen production from the food waste could be obtained continuously by thermophilic acidogenesis at proper operational condition.

Acids↗

PubMed2005

Comparative performance between temperature-phased and conventional mesophilic two-phased processes in terms of anaerobically produced bioenergy from food waste.

Comparative evaluation of bioenergy production from food waste was carried out with both a temperature-phased and a conventional mesophilic two-phased process at different organic loading rates (OLRs). No methane was detected in the temperature-phased thermophilic-acidogenic fermenter at all the OLRs tested. However, a significant amount of methane content was detected in the conventional two-phased mesophilic-acidogenic fermenter, with increments depending on the organic loading rate [from 17% at 3 g VS L(-1) day(-1) to 25% at 8 g VS L(-1) day(-1) (VS, volatile solid)]. Acetate and butyrate were the main volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the temperature-phased thermophilic-acidogenic fermenter; conversely propionate was a major VFA in the conventional two-phased mesophilic-acidogenic fermenter. Through the chemical oxygen demand (COD) balance of both temperature-phased and conventional mesophilic two-phased processes, the fraction of the feed-COD converted to the hydrogen-COD in the thermophilic-acidogenic fermenter within the former process was estimated from 7.9 to 9.3%, with a peak at ORL of 6 g VS L(-1) day(-1), whereas it was quantified from 0.3 to 0.9% in the mesophilic-acidogenic fermenter within the latter one. Moreover, the fraction of the feed-COD converted to the methane-COD in the mesophilic-acidogenic fermenter within the conventional two-phased process ranged from 5.4 to 7.9%. On the other hand, conversion of the feed-COD to the methane-COD in the mesophilic-methanogenic fermenter of both temperature-phased and conventional mesophilic two-phased processes ranged from 66.2 to 72.3% and from 63.5 to 70.5%, respectively, with decrements related to the increase of organic loading rate.

Bioelectric Energy Sources↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Behaviors of intercellular materials and nutrients in biological nutrient removal process supplied with domestic wastewater and food waste.

A four-stage biological nutrient removal (BNR) process was operated to investigate the effect of anaerobically fermented leachate of food waste (AFLFW) as an external carbon source on nutrient removal from domestic wastewater having a low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. The BNR system that was supplemented with AFLFW showed a good performance at a sludge retention time (SRT) of 30 days, despite low temperature. With this wastewater, average removal efficiencies of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (T-N), and total phosphorus (T-P) were 88 to 93%, 70 to 74%, and 63 to 68%, respectively. In this study, several kinds of poly-hydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) were observed in cells. These included 24% poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), 41% poly-3-hydroxyvalerate (PHV), 18% poly-3-hydroxyhexanoate (PHH), 10% poly-3-hydroxyoctanoate (PHO), 5% poly-3-hydroxydecanoate (PHD). and 2% poly-3-hydroxydodecanoate (PHDD), indicating that microorganisms could store various PHAs through the different metabolic pathways. However, breakdown of the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) mechanism was observed when SRT increased from 30 to 50 days for the enhancement of nitrification. To study the effect of SRT on EBPR, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system that was supplied with glucose was operated at various SRTs of 5, 10, and 15 days. Nitrification and denitrification efficiencies increased as SRT increased. However, the content of intracellular materials such as PHAs, glycogen. and poly-P in cells decreased. From these results, it was concluded that SRT should be carefully controlled to increase nitrification activity and to maintain biological phosphorus removal activity in the BNR process.

Bacteria↗