초록
<P><B>SUMMARY</B></P><P>The applicability of electric field as a pretreatment technique for inoculum preparation was confirmed in a previous study. In the present work, newly adopted electric pretreatment conditions were statistically optimized for the preparation of inoculum from anaerobic mixed cultures in dark fermentative H<SUB>2</SUB> production via response surface methodology with a Box–Behnken design. Pretreatment conditions of applied voltage, distance of electrode, and reaction time were chosen as independent variables, while H<SUB>2</SUB> yield was chosen as the response variable. Overall performance revealed that applied voltage and reaction time were slightly interdependent or significantly interactive influence on H<SUB>2</SUB> yield, and they were more influential compared with electrode distance on H<SUB>2</SUB> yield. In the confirmation test, H<SUB>2</SUB> yield of 1.42 mol H<SUB>2</SUB> per mol hexose<SUB>added</SUB> was recorded, corresponding with 94.7% of the predicted response value, under applied voltage of 11 V, distance of electrode of 5 cm, and reaction time of 23 min. Although the H<SUB>2</SUB> yield under electric pretreatment was similar with the heat pretreated yield, the energy consumption efficiency was about 40‐fold lower. Therefore, it may be concluded that electric pretreatment is a potent alternate technique for inoculum preparation method in terms of energy consumption and easy applicability in the field with high effectiveness. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</P>