Biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion can bring high amounts of hydrogen sulphide that is poisonous and poses both environmental and industrial process concerns. The feasibility of a photobioreactor based on the anoxygenic photosynthesis process operated by Chlorobium limicola, capable of oxidizing hydrogen sulphide to elemental sulphur, was investigated. This study shows the preliminary results obtained growing cultures of C. limicola in a multispectral illuminator, properly designed by ENEA, equipped with Light Emitting Diodes. Three experimental phases where carried out: fed batch with all LED on, assessment of best illumination conditions, semicontinuous culture in a photobioreactor. Fresh and high density batch cultures show an effective hydrogen sulphide removal within 48h. No synergic effect of different wavelengths has been observed. Scaling-up the experiments to a semicontinuous photobioreactor directly fed by biogas produced in a pilot anaerobic digestion plant, an efficiency of 97% during the first 24h was observed, while an average of 94% was achieved during all operation time (4 days). Changing the photobioreactor geometry over a 7 day operating period total removal from a synthetic biogas containing 2000 ppm of H2S was achieved.
Hydrogen sulphide removal from gas stream by green sulphur bacteria under LED illumination
De Luca
;E. Felici;Signorini A.;
2014-01-01
Abstract
Biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion can bring high amounts of hydrogen sulphide that is poisonous and poses both environmental and industrial process concerns. The feasibility of a photobioreactor based on the anoxygenic photosynthesis process operated by Chlorobium limicola, capable of oxidizing hydrogen sulphide to elemental sulphur, was investigated. This study shows the preliminary results obtained growing cultures of C. limicola in a multispectral illuminator, properly designed by ENEA, equipped with Light Emitting Diodes. Three experimental phases where carried out: fed batch with all LED on, assessment of best illumination conditions, semicontinuous culture in a photobioreactor. Fresh and high density batch cultures show an effective hydrogen sulphide removal within 48h. No synergic effect of different wavelengths has been observed. Scaling-up the experiments to a semicontinuous photobioreactor directly fed by biogas produced in a pilot anaerobic digestion plant, an efficiency of 97% during the first 24h was observed, while an average of 94% was achieved during all operation time (4 days). Changing the photobioreactor geometry over a 7 day operating period total removal from a synthetic biogas containing 2000 ppm of H2S was achieved.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
