Novel Fungal Group Pretreatment of Waste oat Straw to Enhance Economic And Efficient Biohydrogen Production

Lirong Zhou1,3, Loretta Li2* 

1School of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, 24 South 1st Ring Road, Section No.1, Chengdu 610065, PR China

2Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Colombia, 6250 Applied Science Lane, Vancouver, B.C. V6T1Z4, Canada

3Sichuan Rongjiachuanda Environmental Protection Engineering Design & Consulting Co., Ltd. 47 North Kehua Road, Chengdu 610065, PR China

E-mail: lli@civil.ubc.ca

Abstract: Application a bio-pretreatment to lignocellulosic biohydrogen production was explored with afun-gal group.Aspergillus nigerand Phanerochaete. chrysosponiumwere used for oat straw pretreatment both individually and in combination. The effectiveness of bio-pretreatments was assessed on the basis of lignin removal, microscopic changes of cell-wall structure and the impact on hydrogen yield. The fungal group of effectively degraded the straw ligninfrom 22.6% to 11.9% (wt% of drywt.) in 7 days.SEM analysisshowed that the cell-wall structure of oat straw was decomposed after the pretreatment of the fungal group. The lignin removal is positively related to the hydrogen yield increasing. Compared to the untreated group, hydrogen produced from the straw pretreated by fungal group increased 165% after 6 days fermentation, which is more than that from the straw pretreated by any one fungi speciesalone (94% for A. niger and P. chrysosponium for 106%). 

Keywords: Bio-hydrogen; Fungal group; Pretreatment; Straw; Lignin degradation