Feasible pretreatment of textile wastewater for dark fermentative hydrogen production Ya-Chieh Li a , Chen-Yeon Chu a,b,c , Shu-Yii Wu a,b,c, *, Chia-Ying Tsai a , Chia-Chi Wang d , Chun-Hsiung Hung d , Chiu-Yu Lin e a Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan b Green Energy Development Center, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan c Master Program of Green Energy Science and Technology, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan d Dept. of Environmental Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan e Dept. of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 21 January 2012 Received in revised form 24 March 2012 Accepted 27 March 2012 Available online 8 May 2012 Keywords: Biohydrogen Dark fermentation Textile wastewater Activated carbon Cation exchange resin abstract In this study, the yield of hydrogen production was investigated under different feedstock pretreatment conditions. The feedstock for dark fermentative hydrogen production was textile wastewater which was obtained from the de-sizing process in a textile factory, located in northern Taiwan. The wastewater was pretreated with activated carbon, cation exchange resin or was not pretreated before being fed into the batch bottles. Biohydrogen production was carried out in a batch reactor with the sludge of mixed-culture using the feedstock from the pretreated wastewater. The sludge was obtained from the Taichung municipal wastewater treatment plant. The yield of hydrogen production using the two pretreatment methods or non e treatment were compared. Results showed that the textile wastewater could remove bio-toxic inhibitors by using activated carbon. The best hydrogen yield was 1.37 mol H 2 /mol reducing sugar with an initial pH 7.0, as substrate concentration was fixed at 20 g total sugar/L. Using textile wastewater as feedstock for biohydrogen production was successful, in removing bio-toxic inhibitors from wastewater with activated carbon pretreatment. Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The climate has changed dramatically because of the large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. The main reason is the increased use of fossil fuels. Furthermore, crude oil reserves are being depleted, so the production of renewable hydrogen is a promising energy supply. In this study, de-sizing textile wastewater, which contains a large amount of glucose from the starch used in the sizing process, was chosen as feedstock for dark hydrogen fermentation. The textile industry employs one of the most complicated processes in the manufacturing sectors, which involves washing, scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing and fin- ishing processes. The processes produce a complex waste- water containing a type of dye, surfactants, as well as many textile additives. As a result, textile plants produce highly * Corresponding author. Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan. Fax: þ886 4 24517250x3679. E-mail address: sywu@fcu.edu.tw (S.-Y. Wu). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 37 (2012) 15511 e15517 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.03.131