초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Ozone pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) was employed to improve sustrate biodegradability prior to biological H<SUB>2</SUB> production. The H<SUB>2</SUB> production was conducted at varing pHs from 4.0 to 6.0 to examine the impact of pH on the H<SUB>2</SUB> mesophilic production (37 °C). The optimal pH for H<SUB>2</SUB> production was 6.0 for both raw and ozonated POME. The POME concentrations were greatly influenced the yields and rates of H<SUB>2</SUB> production. At the optimal pH, the maximum H<SUB>2</SUB> production yield of 182 ± 7.2 mL.g<SUP>−1</SUP> COD (7.96 mmoL.g<SUP>−1</SUP> COD) was achieved at the ozonated POME concentration of 30,000 mg COD.L<SUP>−1</SUP>. The maximum H<SUB>2</SUB> production rate (R<SUB>max</SUB>) of 43.1 ± 2.5 mL.h<SUP>−1</SUP> was obtained at the ozonated POME concentration of 25,000 mg COD.L<SUP>−1</SUP>. The highest total COD removal was 44% at of 15,000 mg COD.L<SUP>−1</SUP> ozonated POME. Acetic and butyric acids were dominant products during H<SUB>2</SUB> fermentation and tended to increase with the increased POME concentrations. Ozonation as a pretreatment process showed significant enhancement of the POME biodegradability , and subsequently improved the H<SUB>2</SUB> production H<SUB>2</SUB>.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Mesophilic H<SUB>2</SUB> production of ozone pretreated POME. </LI> <LI> Ozone pretreatment of POME improved substrate biodegradability. </LI> <LI> Ozone pretreatment of POME improved H<SUB>2</SUB> yield. </LI> </UL> </P>