Hydrogen and methane production from the oganic fraction of municipal solid waste in a double phase lab scale plant

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste from the town of Padova (OFMSW) was used in the test production of hydrogen and methane in a double phase lab scale plant.The first phase was set up to produce hydrogen by dark fermentation and the second to produce methane by anaerobic methanogenic process. Experiments were performed in batch tests at a concentration of 5 g volatile substance (VS) per litre, varying the Food on Microorganism ratio (F/M = 0.5; 1; 2; 4; 6 gVS/gVS) and conditioning initial pH (5.5; 7; 9). Inoculated biomass was a granular sludge thermally pre-treated. The results showed that hydrogen production was not affected to any clear extent by food vs microrganism ratio. The initial pH value did not affect hydrogen production in the first step and the methane production in the second step. The double phase process was therefore demonstrated to enhance methane production, shortening the process time and stabilizing the process