• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.315-323
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• 2005

The integrated or the two-stage (dark anaerobic and photosynthetic) fermentation processes were compared for the hydrogen production using purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria, Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4. Cell growth, pH changes and organic acids and bacteriochlorophyll contents were monitored during the processes. Culture broth of Rps. palustris P4 exhibited dark-red during the photosynthetic culture condition, while yellow under the anaerobic condition without light. Rps. palustris P4 grown at the photosynthetic condition evolved 0.38 and 1.33 ml $H_2$/mg-dcw during the dark and the light fermentation, respectively, which were totally 1.71 ml $H_2$/mg-dcw at the two-stage fermentation. The rate of hydrogen production using Rps. palustris P4 grown under the dark anaerobic condition was 2.76 ml $H_2$/mg-dcw which consisted of 0.46 and 2.30 ml $H_2$/mg-dcw from the dark and the photosynthetic fermentation processes, respectively. Rps. palustris P4 grown under dark anaerobic conditions produced $H_2$ 1.6 times higher than that of grown under the photosynthetic condition. However, total fermentation period of the former was 1.5 times slower than that of the latter, because the induced time of hydrogen production during the photosynthetic fermentation was 96 and 24 hours when the seed culture was the dark anaerobic and photosynthetic, respectively. The integrated fermentation process by Rps. palustris P4 produced 0.52 ml $H_2$/mg-dcw(1.01 mol $H_2$/mol glucose), which was 20% of the two-stage fermentation.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.393-400
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• 2005

Hydrogen($H_2$) as a clean, and renewable energy carrier will be served an important role in the future energy economy. Several biological $H_2$ production processes are known and currently under development, ranging from direct bio-photolysis of water by green algae, indirect bio-photolysis by cyanobacteria including the separated two stage photolysis using the combination of green algae and photosynthetic microorganisms or green algae alone, dark anaerobic fermentation by fermentative bacteria, photo-fermentation by purple bacteria, and water gas shift reaction by photosynthetic or fermentative bacteria. In this paper, biological $H_2$ production processes, that are being explored in fundamental and applied research, are reviewed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2006

Biological hydrogen production processes are more environment-friendly and less energy intensive than thermochemical and electrochemical processes. The biological process can be divided into two categories: photosynthetic hydrogen production and hydrogen production by dark fermentation. Photosynthetic process produces hydrogen mainly from water and reduces $CO_2$ simultaneously. Dark fermentation is a dark and anaerobic process that produces hydrogen by fermentative bacteria from organic carbon. The article presents a survey of biological hydrogen production processes.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.422-427
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• 2003

Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4 can produce $H_2$ either from CO by water-gas shift reaction or from various sugars by anaerobic fermentation. Fermentative $H_2$ production by P4 is fast, but its yield is relatively low due to the formation of various organic acids. In order to increase $H_2$ production yield from glucose, P4 was investigated for the photo-fermentation of acetate which is a major by-product of fermentative $H_2$ production. Experiments were performed in batch modes using both light-grown and dark-grown cells. When the dark-grown P4 was challenged with light and acetate, $H_2$ was produced with the consumption of acetate after a lag period of 25 h. $H_2$ production was inhibited when a nitrogen source, especially ammonium, is present. When the dark-fermentation broth containing acetate was adopted for photo-fermentation with light-grown cells, $H_2$ production and concomitant acetate consumption occurred without a lag period. The $H_2$ yield was estimated as 2.4 - 2.8 mol $H_2/mol$ acetate and the specific $H_2$ production rate was as 9.8 ml $H_2/g$ cell${\cdot}$h, The fact that a single strain can perform both dark- and light-fermentation gives a great advantage in process development Compared to a one-step dark-fermentation, the combined dark- and light-fermentation can increase the $H_2$ production yield on glucose by two-fold.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2014

This study was conducted to evaluate the characteristics of dark fermentative $H_2$ production from microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) using batch reactors under mesophilic (25, $35^{\circ}C$) and thermophilic (45, $55^{\circ}C$) conditions. The $H_2$ yield and $H_2$ production rate increased with increasing temperature. The maximum $H_2$ yield and $H_2$ production rate were 56.77 mL $H_2/g$ dcw, 3.33 mL $H_2/g\;dcw{\cdot}h$ at $55^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activation energy calculated using Arrhenius equation was 36.24 kcal/mol, which was higher than that of dark $H_2$ fermentation of glucose by anaerobic mixed culture. Although the concentration of butyrate was maintained, the concentrations of lactate and acetate increased with increasing temperature. The $H_2$ yield was linearly proportional to acetate/ butyrate ratio.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.145-155
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• 2008

This paper deals with an economic evaluation of hydrogen production by fermentation. We evaluate the economic feasibility of domestic hydrogen production by fermentation utilizing glucose and waste water sludge in terms of hydrogen production prices. In addition, we make some sensitivity analysis of hydrogen prices by changing the values of input factors such as the price of glucose, the capital cost of the hydrogen production system, and the hydrogen production yields. The estimated hydrogen prices of the two-step dark-light hydrogen production by fermentation utilizing glucose was $5,347won/kgH_2$, and the single-step hydrogen production by anaerobic fermentation utilizing waste water sludge was $4,255won/kgH_2$, respectively. It is expected that the hydrogen production price by anaerobic fermentation can be reduced if we produce methane or hydrogen utilizing by-products such as alcohols and organic acids, or the government imposes some legal regulations on the treatment of waste water sludge.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.15 no.2 s.46
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• pp.118-126
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• 2006

This publication provides an overview of the state-of-the-art and perspective of biological $H_2$ production from water and/or organic substances. The biological $H_2$ production processes, being explored in fundamental and applied researches, are direct and indirect biophotolysis from water, photo-fermentation, dark anaerobic fermentation and in vitro $H_2$ production. The development of biological $H_2$ production technology, as an energy carrier, started at the late 1940's in the lab-scale. Now it has a high priority in the world, especially USA, Japan, EU and Korea.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.148-155
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• 2013

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production from marine brown algae, Saccharina japonica, was investigated in anaerobic dark fermentation. In order to evaluate the VFAs productivity, various experimental parameters (i.e., physicochemical pre-treatment, microorganism inoculation ratio, substrate concentration, and pH) were evaluated. According to the physicochemical pre-treatment methods, the maximum concentrations of VFAs were obtained in the order of sulfuric acid, subcritical water and subcritical water with lipid-extraction. Also, we investigated the operating parameters such as microorganism inoculation ratio (MV/M = 10 to 30), the substrate concentration (18.0 to 72.0 g/L) and pH (6.0 to 7.0) in sulfuric acid pre-treatment method. When the substrate concentrations were 18.0, 36.0, 54.0 and 72.0 g/L at $35^{\circ}C$, microorganism inoculation ratio 15, pH 7.0 for 372 hours, the maximum concentrations of VFAs were respectively 9.8, 13.9, 18.6 and 22.3 g/L. The change in VFAs concentrations was detected that acetic- and propionic acids increased according to increasing pH, while the butyric acid increased with decreasing pH. The VFAs obtained from concentration and separation process may be used as basic chemistry materials and bio-fuel, and they will expect to produce alternative energy of fossil fuel.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.1128-1133
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• 2002

The whole plant of crop maize was chopped and ensiled in airtight 1-L capacity glass jars to determine the influence of residual sugar on anaerobic yeast growth and on the fermentation of lactic acid by L. buchneri in whole crop maize silage. There were a total of six treatments used in this experiment as follow: added 25 g de-mineralised water per kg chopped maize serving as control (con), 37.5 g glucose solution containing 12.5 g glucose ($g_1$), 75 g glucose solution containing 25 g glucose ($g_2$), 25 g L. buchneri suspension intended for $10^6$ cfu $g^{-1}$ (L.b.), $g_1+L.b.$ and $g_2+L.b.$ All silos were stored in the dark at $20^{\circ}C$ until end of experiment. Jars were opened on duplicates at day 2, 7, 14, 28, 56 or triplicates at day 91 after ensiling for measuring the pH, microbiological enumeration and fermentative products. Results indicated that acidification rates for all silages were very fast, no difference occurred among treatments before day 28. After day 28 the pH values for silages inoculated by L. buchneri. with or without sugar tended to increase especially for treated only with L. buchneri, resulting in higher (p<0.01) finial pH than uninoculated silages. Compared with control silage, the added sugar significantly (p<0.01) increased dry matter (DM) loss, L. buchneri enhanced (p<0.01) DM loss further at different sugar existence. Silages inoculated by L. buchneri only or in combination with sugar addition contained less (p<0.01) lactic acid than the correspondent silages without inoculation with L. buchneri. In comparison with control, ethanol production is about 3 or 6 fold higher due to addition 12.5 or 25 g glucose per kg chopped maize at ensiling. The added sugar resulted in less acetic acid concentration (p<0.01) than control, but inoculation with L. buchneri increased (p<0.01) acetic acid than correspondent uninoculated silages at different sugar levels. No butyric acid and propionic acid were found in uninoculted silages, silages inoculated with L. buchneri. produced more propionic acid, 1-propanol and butyric acid. Lactobacilli counts were not influenced by added sugar, but increased (p<0.01) with inoculation of L. buchneri. The added sugar increased significantly (p<0.01) the yeast count, whereas L. buchneri showed the contrary effect. No differences were found in the aerobic stability among all treatments. In conclusions, 1) the added sugars encourage the growth of yeast and yeasts convert extra sugar into ethanol in maize silages. 2) The added sugars and L. buchneri do not influence the aerobic stability of silages stored in anaerobic silos.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.285-289
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• 2004

The bloody watermelon exhibiting dark red and fermentation off-flavor results in a great economic loss. As an effort to clarify the cause of the bloody watermelon, relationship between the fermentational off-flavor and the presence of endophytic bacteria was studied. The number of endophytes was 2.2-37.0 ${\times}10^3$ cfu/g fw (fresh weight) in normal watermelons, compared to 1.26-1.75 ${\times}10^6$ cfu/g fw in bloody ones. Seventeen bacteria among 56 isolates from bloody watermelons could induce bloody watermelons. The bacteria responsible for bloody watermelons were mainly Gram negative: aerobic Pseudomonas spp and some anaerobic bacteria. The results in this study strongly suggested that the bloody watermelons were produced by abnormal fermentation and growth of endophytic Gram negative bacteria.