Antibiotic fermentation residue for biohydrogen production: Inhibitory mechanisms of the inherent antibiotic.

Antibiotic fermentation residue, which is generated from the microbial antibiotic production process, has been a troublesome waste faced by the pharmaceutical industry. Dark fermentation is a potential technology to treat antibiotic fermentation residue in terms of renewable H2 generation and waste management. However, the inherent antibiotic in antibiotic fermentation residue may inhibit its dark fermentation performance, and current understanding on this topic is limited. This investigation examined the impact of the inherent antibiotic on the dark H2 fermentation of Cephalosporin C (CEPC) fermentation residue, and explored the mechanisms from the perspectives of bacterial communities and functional genes. It was found that CEP-C in the antibiotic fermentation residue significantly inhibited the H2 production, with the H2 yield decreasing from 17.2 mL/g-VSadded to 12.5 and 9.6 mL/g-VSadded at CEP-C concentrations of 100 and 200 mg/L, respectively. CEP-C also prolonged the H2-producing lag period. Microbiological analysis indicated that CEP-C remarkably decreased the abundances of high-yielding H2-producing bacteria, as well as downregulated the genes involved in hydrogen generation from the"pyruvate pathway" and"NADH pathway", essentially leading to the decline of H2 productivity. The present work gains insights into how cephalosporin antibiotics influence the dark H2 fermentation, and provide guidance for mitigating the inhibitory effects.

Hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae over transition metal supported TiO2 catalyst.

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of microalgae Nannochloropsis (NAS) over various transition metal M/TiO2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Mo, and Mn) was investigated. Ni/TiO2 was the most effective catalyst to improve the yield and quality of biocrude and the liquefaction conversion. Ni/TiO2 was characterized by XRD, XRF, and XPS. The research of Effect of reaction temperature on HTL of NAS over Ni/TiO2 suggested that 300 °C led to a maximum biocrude yield of 48.23% and the highest liquefaction conversion of 89.28%. Adding Ni/TiO2 catalyst reduced the viscosity and provided more light-fraction in biocrude while brought a slight increase in total acid number (TAN). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis demonstrated that adding Ni/TiO2 considerably changed the composition of biocrude and the possible pathways were discussed. Reproduction test showed the Ni/TiO2 has an excellent reproduction ability in HTL of NAS.