Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 500–505

Efficient conversion of wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen gas

by cow dung compost
a,*
Yao-Ting Fan , Ya-Hui Zhang a, Shu-Fang Zhang a, Hong-Wei Hou a, Bao-Zeng Ren b

a
Department of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, PR China
b
College of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, PR China

Received 7 August 2004; received in revised form 26 February 2005; accepted 26 February 2005
Available online 17 May 2005

Abstract

Efficient conversion of wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen gas by cow dung compost was reported for the first time. Batch tests
were carried out to analyze influences of several environmental factors on biohydrogen production from wheat straw wastes. The
performance of biohydrogen production using the raw wheat straw and HCl pretreated wheat straw was then compared in batch
fermentation tests. The maximum cumulative hydrogen yield of 68.1 ml H2/g TVS was observed at 126.5 h, the value is about 136-
fold as compared with that of raw wheat straw wastes. The maximum hydrogen production rate of 10.14 ml H2/g TVS h was
obtained by a modified Gompertz equation. The hydrogen content in the biogas was 52.0% and there was no significant methane
observed in this study. In addition, biodegradation characteristics of the substrate were also discussed. The experimental results
showed that the pretreatment of the substrate plays a key role in the conversion of the wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen by
the composts generating hydrogen.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Biohydrogen gas; Wheat straw wastes; Pretreatment; Natural anaerobic microorganisms; Fermentation

1. Introduction have been done by pure cultures of anaerobic bacteria

The microbial conversion of agricultural and indus-
trial wastes and residues into hydrogen is attracting
increasing interest, this is due to that hydrogen is an
excellent alternative energy candidate for the future
and producing only water instead of greenhouse gases
on burning. In addition, it is also the raw material for
the synthesis of ammonia, alcohols, and aldehydes, as
well as the hydrogenations of petroleum, edible oils,
and coal. Hydrogen can be easily stored as a metal hy-
dride and its transmission through natural gas pipelines
would be more efficient than the transmission of electric-
ity down power lines (Fan et al., 2004). Earlier studies
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 371 7766017.
E-mail address: yt.fan@zzu.edu.cn (Y.-T. Fan).
to study the conversion of carbohydrates (such as glu-
cose and starch) to hydrogen gas, e.g., Enterobacter
(Rachman et al., 1997), Aspergillus terreus (Emtiazi
et al., 2001) and Clostridium (Taguchi et al., 1994). Re-
cently, the considerable attention of research activity on
fermentative hydrogen-production has been focused on
the conversion of biomass reproducible resources to
hydrogen by mixed cultures (Lay et al., 1999; Ginkel
et al., 2001; Fan et al., 2002). For example, Ueno
et al. studied the hydrogen-production from an artificial
medium containing cellulose powder by thermophilic
anaerobic microflora enriched from sludge compost
(Ueno et al., 2001). Fan et al. have successfully used a
heat-shocked cow dung compost to convert a simulated
organic wastewater into hydrogen gas (Fan et al., 2003);
Lay et al. (1999) studied the mixed bacterial cultures,
taken from a compost pile, a potato field and sludge,

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2005.02.049
 Y.-T. Fan et al. / Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 500–505
to generate hydrogen from sucrose or glucose in batch
experiments. Fang et al. (2002) investigated a mesophilic
microbial community converting glucose into hydrogen.
However, the research of the conversion of the biomass
containing cellulose, such as wheat straw and corn stalk,
into biohydrogen is lacking. In general, it is hard to
convert directly raw crop stalk wastes into biohydrogen
gas by microbe anaerobic fermentation because of their
complex chemical composition, e.g., cellulose, hemi-
cellulose, lignin, protein, fat.
It is well known that cellulose in nature substrates,
such as wheat straw, is persistent in the environment
and remains as an environmental pollutant. Only in
China, the annual yield of wheat straw is 110 million
tons (Yang and Wang, 1999). Except that some of them
were used to make paper or as feedstuff for livestock,
most of them were set on fire or discarded as environ-
mental pollutants. Cellulosic materials can, however,
be a valuable and vast renewable resource.
Therefore, in the present study, our research interest
is to convert wheat straw wastes into hydrogen gas by
natural anaerobic microorganism. For this purpose,
several environmental factors, such as pretreatment
conditions, initial pH and substrate concentration,
were selected as target factors in conversion of raw
wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen gas by cow dung
compost. Maximum hydrogen production yield of
68.1 ml H2/g TVS was observed from the pretreated
wheat straw wastes by microorganisms, the value is
about 136-fold as compared with that of raw wheat
straw wastes. The result is encouraging because of its
potential commercial and environmental benefits in the
future.
2. Experimental methods
2.1. Seed microflora
Hydrogen-producing microflora was taken from
cow dung compost in the suburb of Zhengzhou City in
this study. Before it is used, cow dung compost was
placed into a stainless steel pizza pan to a depth of
1 cm and broken up in the infrared oven for 2 h in order
to inhibit the bioactivity of hydrogen consumers and to
harvest high yield hydrogen-producing spore-forming
anaerobes.
2.2. Chemical pretreatment of the substrate
The wheat straw wastes used as substrate were ob-
tained from the suburbs of Zhengzhou city. Before the
substrate were degraded by microorganisms, the mixed
solution containing wheat straw wastes and dilute HCl
was boiled in a Teflon digestor by microwave heating
or in a beakers, then neutralized to pH = 7 with either
501
dilute NaOH or HCl solution. TVS value was deter-
wheat straw W ash
mined as follows: TVS ¼ W dried
W dried wheat straw
 100%.
2.3. Experimental procedure
The batch experiments were performed with 250 ml
serum vials as batch reactors filled to 150 ml comprising
the mixture of the composts, the pretreated wheat straw,
and 3 ml of nutrient stock solution. These vials were
gassed with nitrogen gas to remove oxygen and the
headspace of the reactors to keep the anaerobic environ-
ment. The bottles were incubated at 36 ± 1 °C and oper-
ated in an orbital shaker with a rotation speed of 90 rpm
to provide better contact among substrates. The com-
post concentration of 80 g/l was maintained in the batch
reactors. Each liter of nutrient stock solution containing
80 g of NH4HCO3, 12.4 g of KH2PO4; 0.1 g of
MgSO4 Æ 7H2O; 0.01 g of NaCl; 0.01 g of Na2MoO4 Æ
2H2O; 0.01 g of CaCl2 Æ 2H2O; 0.015 g of MnSO4 Æ
7H2O; 0.0278 g of FeCl2, which was slightly modified
from Lay et al. (1999). The volume of biogas was deter-
mined using glass syringes of 5–50 ml.
2.4. Analytical methods
The hydrogen gas percentage was calculated by com-
paring the sample biogas with a standard of pure hydro-
gen using a gas chromatograph (GC, Agilent 4890D)
equipped with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD)
and 6 feet stainless column packed with Porapak Q
(80/100 mesh). The operational temperatures of the
injection port, the oven and the detector were 100 °C,
80 °C and 150 °C, respectively. Nitrogen was used as
the carrier gas at a flow rate of 20 ml/min. The concen-
trations of the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and the alco-
hol were analyzed using another GC of the same model
with a flame ionization detector (FID) and a 8 feet stain-
less column packed with 10% PEG-20M and 2% H3PO4
(80/100 mesh). The temperatures of the injection port,
the detector and the oven were 220 °C, 240 °C and a
programmed column temperature of 130–175 °C, res-
pectively. Nitrogen was the carrier gas at a flow rate
of 20 ml/min. The pH values inside the digesters were
measured by a microcomputer pH-vision 6071.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of pretreatment of substrate on hydrogen
production
Fig. 1 depicted the effects of the changes in the acid
concentration on hydrogen production yield at the fixed
initial pH 6.5 and substrate concentration 15 g/l. As can
be seen from Fig. 1, under the condition of microwave
heating, the accumulative hydrogen yield increased
502
25
hydrogen (ml H2/g TVS)
20
Cumulative
15
10
5 10
0 (a)
0 1 2 3
HCl concentration (%)
Fig. 1. The effect of chemical pretreatment of wheat straw on
hydrogen-production potential. Other variables are constant at their
respective levels as follows: initial pH, 6.5; concentration of substrate,
15 g/l; microwave heating time, 4 min (or ferv. heating 30 min).
remarkably with the increase of HCl concentration in
the range of 0.5–2.0%. Maximum hydrogen yield of
22.9 ml H2/g TVS was observed in the test using the pre-
treated substrate (2.0% HCl). Then, the hydrogen yield
gradually declined as HCl concentration increased from
22.9 ml H2/g TVS at HCl concentration of 2.0% to 6.0
ml H2/g TVS at HCl concentration of 5.0%. Although
the higher acid concentration was in favor of the hydro-
lyzation of the substrate, but the high Cl anion concen-
tration in the batch tests heavily inhibited the growth of
hydrogen production bacteria (Wang et al., 1995).
Under the condition of ferv. heating, the change curve
of hydrogen yield was similar to that by microwave
heating, except that the maximum hydrogen production
yield was only 17.9 ml H2/g TVS. However, the maximal
hydrogen yield from the acid pretreated wheat straw by
microwave heating was higher than that by ferv.
heating.
In addition, both microwave heating and ferv. heat-
ing time also affected the hydrogen-production yield
for the acid pretreated substrate. Fig. 2 showed the ef-
fects of micro-wave heating (a) and ferv. heating time
(b) on hydrogen production yield. As shown in Fig. 2,
the hydrogen yield increased with the increase of the
heating time, the maximal hydrogen yield of 22.5 ml
H2/g TVS and 18.0 ml H2/g TVS occurred at the micro-
wave heating of 8 min and the ferv. heating of 50 min,
respectively. The results showed that the microwave
heating was a better method for hydrogen production
from the acid pretreated substrate as compared with
that by ferv. heating.
As far as we know, the direct conversion of raw
wheat straw into hydrogen gas by anaerobic fermenta-
tion is very difficult because of its complex polymer
structure such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin,
e.g., the maximal hydrogen yield was only 0.5 ml
H2/g TVS by the cow dung compost in the test using
the raw wheat straw. In order to explain the experiment
phenomena, the composition of the wheat straw was
analyzed in the test. Compared with the raw wheat
straw, we found that the soluble sugar content increased
Y.-T. Fan et al. / Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 500–505
25
hydrogen (ml H2/g TVS)
Microwave
Ferv. 20
Cumulative
15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Microwave heating time (min)
4 5 6
hydrogen (ml H2/g TVS)
20
15
Cumulative
10
5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
(b) Ferv. heating time (min)
Fig. 2. The effect of pretreatment time on hydrogen production yield.
Other variables are constant at their respective levels as follows: initial
pH, 6.5; concentration of substrate, 15 g/l; (a) 2.0% HCl concentration
by microwave heating and (b) 1.0% HCl concentration by ferv.
heating.
from 0.24% to 9.60%, and the cellulose and hemicel-
lulose contents decreased from 22.5% and 21.5% to
15.40% and 12.88% for the acid pretreated wheat straw
by the microwave heating of 8 min, respectively.
Accordingly, we deduced that an increase in the hydro-
gen yield possibly was due to an increase in the soluble
sugar in the composition of the acid pretreated
substrate. The results showed that the pretreatment of
the substrate plays a key role in the conversion
of wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen by micro-
organisms.
3.2. Effect of initial pH value on hydrogen-production
yield
To investigate the effect of initial pH on start-up a
hydrogen-producing reactor, the acid pretreated wheat
straw was then used for biohydrogen production at dif-
ferent initial pH values from 4.0 to 9.0, the results are
plotted in Fig. 3. As can be seen from Fig. 3, the initial
pH values significantly affect the hydrogen-production
yield of the substrate under the condition of the micro-
wave heating, e.g., while the initial pH level rose from
4.0 to 7.0, the hydrogen yields increased from 0.01
ml H2/g TVS to 24.1 ml H2/g TVS, respectively. There-
after, the hydrogen yield slightly decreased with in-
creased initial pH of the culture medium in the range
of initial pH 7.0–9.0. For example, while the initial pH
of the culture medium was 9.0, the cumulative hydrogen
yield dropped to 22.7 ml H2/g TVS. Under the condition
of the ferv. heating, the change trend of the hydrogen
yield with initial pH value is similar to that by micro-
wave heating, except that the maximum hydrogen yield
 Y.-T. Fan et al. / Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 500–505
30
hydrogen(ml H2/g TVS) 25
Cumulative
20
15
10
5 tively. However, maximum hydrogen yield of 68.1 ml
0 H2/g TVS occurred at the acid pretreated wheat straw
4 6
Initial pH
Fig. 3. The effect of varied pH value on hydrogen production yield.
Other variables are constant at their respective levels as follows:
concentration of substrate, 15 g/l; (j) 2.0% HCl concentration by
microwave heating 8 min; (m) 1.0% HCl concentration by ferv. heating
50 min.
of 10.3 ml H2/g TVS occurred at initial pH value 8.
The results showed that the pH control could stimulate
the microorganisms to produce hydrogen and would
achieve the system having a maximum hydrogen yield,
but the activity of hydrogenase would be inhibited by
low or high pH values in overall hydrogen fermentation
(Fan et al., 2004; Lay et al., 1999).
3.3. Effect of substrate concentration on
hydrogen-production yield
The effects of the pretreated substrate concentration
versus cumulative hydrogen yield by the microorgan-
isms were presented in Fig. 4. As can be seen from
Fig. 4, the cumulative hydrogen yield increased remar-
kedly with increasing the concentration of the pretreated
substrate, e.g., under the conditions of the microwave
heating and ferv. heating, while the concentration of
the acid pretreated wheat straw rose from 5 g/l to 25
g/l, 30 g/l, the cumulative hydrogen yield increased from
13.8 ml H2/g TVS, 5.6 ml H2/g TVS to 68.1 ml H2/g
TVS, 52.7 ml H2/g TVS, respectively. Thereafter, the
80
70
hydrogen (ml H2/g TVS)
60
Cumulative
50
40
30
20
10
0
5 15 25
Substrate concentrtion (g/l)
Fig. 4. The effect of substrate concentration on hydrogen production
yield. Other variables are constant at their respective levels as follows:
initial pH, 7; (j) 2.0% HCl concentration by microwave heating 8 min;
(m) 1.0% HCl concentration by ferv. heating 50 min.
503
cumulative hydrogen yield decreased gradually as the
concentration of the pretreated substrate increased,
e.g., while the concentration of the acid pretreated sub-
Microwave strate increased from 25 g/l, 30 g/l to 35 g/l, the hydro-
Ferv.
gen yield dropped from 68.1 ml H2/g TVS, 52.7 ml
H2/g TVS to 16.3 ml H2/g, 44.1 ml H2/g TVS, respec-
8 10
of 25 g/l by microorganisms under the conditions of
the microwave heating, the value is about 136-fold as
compared with that of raw wheat straw (Fig. 4).
The results showed that the change of the substrate
concentration obviously affected the hydrogen yield in
the test. Although an increase in the substrate concen-
tration could enhance the hydrogen yield under the con-
dition of the optimum hydrogen production, but the
excessive substrate concentration would result in the
accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and a fall
of pH value in the reactor, and even inhibited the
growth of hydrogen-producing bacteria. In addition,
the partial pressure of hydrogen in the batch reactor
rose with the increases in substrate concentration. While
the partial pressure of hydrogen increased to a certain
level in the headspace of reactor, the microorganisms
would switch to alcohol production, thus inhibiting
hydrogen production (Fan et al., 2004).
3.4. Biodegradation characteristics of the substrate
In this paper, volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and alcohol
were selected as main by-products of the composts con-
suming the substrate. Fig. 5 showed the changes of the
accumulative hydrogen yield (a), pH value (b), VFAs
(c) and alcohol (d) during the conversion of the pre-
treated wheat straw wastes to biohydrogen by cow dung
compost.
As shown in Fig. 5(a), the hydrogen evolution began
to occur after 4 h of cultivation. The hydrogen yield
increased rapidly from 7.4 ml H2/g TVS at 16 h to
40.8 ml H2/g TVS at 31.5 h while the pH value decreased
from 5.95 to 5.0. The maximum hydrogen yield of
Microwave
68.1 ml H2/g TVS was observed at 126.5 h (Fig. 5(a)).
Ferv. The maximum hydrogen production rate of 10.14
Crude ml H2/g TVS h was by a modified Gompertz equation
(Lay et al., 1999). The hydrogen content in the biogas
was 52.0% and there was no significant methane ob-
served in this study.
The pH value of the medium decreased from 7.0 to
4.7 with the progress of hydrogen evolution and wheat
straw decomposition, the optimum pH value of hydro-
35 45 gen-production appeared in the range of 5.0–4.7 (Fig.
5(b)). Hydrogen production was accompanied with the
formation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) throughout
the wheat straw fermentation (Fig. 5(c) and (d)). During
this period, acetate, propionate and butyrate reached
maximum yields of 1752, 234 and 1617 mg/l at 78.5 h,
504 Y.-T. Fan et al. / Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 500–505

4. Conclusion

H2 (ml H2 /g TVS)
80
(a)
Commulative 60
40 The acid pretreatment of the substrate plays a key
20
role in efficient conversion of the wheat straw wastes
into biohydrogen gas by the cow dung composts. The
0
pretreated HCl concentration of 2.0% was optimal
8 under the microwave heating time of 8 min. The maxi-
(b)
7 mum hydrogen yield of 68.1 ml H2/g TVS was observed
at the fixed initial pH 7.0 and substrate concentration
pH

6
5
25 g/l, the value was about 136-fold higher than the
maximum value obtained for raw wheat straw wastes.
4
The maximum hydrogen production rate of 10.14
2000 ml H2/g TVS h was obtained by a modified Gompertz
Volatile acids (mg/l)

(c)
1600 equation. The hydrogen content in the biogas was
1200 Acetate 52.0% and there was no significant methane observed
Propionate
800 Butyrate in this study.
400 The hydrogen production was usually accompanied
0 with the formation of VFAs and alcohol while both of
600 them were the main by-products in the metabolism of
Alcohols (mg/l)

(d) hydrogen fermentation, during which acetate and buty-

400 Ethanol rate accounted for about 76–80% of VFAs.
Propanol
200 Butanol

0 Acknowledgements
0 50 100 150
Time (hours)
This work was supported by the China National Key
Fig. 5. Developments of cumulative hydrogen yield, pH value, VFAs
Basic Research Special Funds (No. 2003CB214500), the
and alcohols in the batch reactor during the conversion of the substrate
to biohydrogen under the pretreated condition of microwave heating. National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.
20171040 and 20471053) and the Energy and Technol-
ogy Program from Zhengzhou University.

respectively. The ethanol began to produce after 4 h cul-

tivation and increased up to 482 mg/l at 126.5 h. When
the reaction reached the quasi-steady state, the produc-
ers of volatile fatty acids and ethanol plateaued. Hydro-
gen production stopped when the available substrate
was consumed up, and the ethanol, acetate and butyrate
as significant by-products were left in the batch reactor,
during which acetate and butyrate accounted for 70–
80% of total VFAs, but amounts of propionate were
very low in total VFAs. This result is similarly those
in biohydrogen fermentation from glucose, in which
VFAs mainly consists of acetate and butyrate (Fan
et al., 2002).
These phenomena were expected because hydrogen
production appears to be usually accompanied with
the formation of VFAs and alcohol while both of them
are the main by-products in the metabolism of hydrogen
fermentation. This result also implied the competition
among the acetate, butyrate and propionate producers.
However, under the optimum pH condition of hydrogen
production, the acetate and butyrate producers were ac-
tive and competed with the propionate producer. In
order to convert the wheat straw into biohydrogen by
the microorganisms, the activity of the propionate pro-
ducer must be suppressed.
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