LAUSR

Abstract Enhancement of biological H2 production efficiency with pre-ozonation process of palm oil mill effluent (POME) prior to thermophilic dark fermentation (55 °C) was investigated. H2 fermentation experiments were conducted using varying concentrations of raw and ozonated POME. Results revealed that H2 can be produced from both raw and ozonated POME under thermophilic fermentation. Maximum H2 production yield of 77 mL.g−1CODremoved was obtained from ozonated POME, which was higher than that of 51 mL·g−1 CODremoved obtained from raw POME at the highest concentration of 35,000 mg COD.L−1. Meanwhile, the specific H2 production rate (R'max) of 1.9 and 1.5 mL·h−1·g−1 TVS were observed in raw and ozonated POME at the concentration of 25,000 mg COD.L−1, respectively. The main metabolic products during POME fermentation were acetic and butyric acids and trace amount of valeric acid. Propionic acid and ethanol have contributed, which could be reduced H2 production in all batch experiments for both POME. The highest efficiency of total and soluble COD removal of 24 and 25% was obtained from the raw POME, and those of 19 and 25% was obtained from the ozonated POME. The present study demonstrates that the POME loading was greatly influenced on the H2 production yields and rates. The comparative results showed that the ozonated POME gave higher H2 yields than the raw POME. Thus, demonstrating that the ozonation process significantly improved the POME biodegradability, which is able to enhance H2 production yields. However, the ozone pre-treatment was not improved in the specific H2 production rates.