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Anaerobic acidification of sugar-containing wastewater for biotechnological production of organic acids and ethanol
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Anaerobic acidification of sugar-containing wastewater for biotechnological production of organic acids and ethanol

. Darwin, W. Charles and R. Cord-Ruwisch
Environmental Technology, Vol.40(25), pp.3276-3286
2018
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Abstract

Anaerobic acidification of sugars can produce some useful end-products such as alcohol, volatile fatty acids (e.g. acetate, propionate, and butyrate) and lactic acid. The production of end-products is highly dependent on factors including pH, temperature, hydraulic retention time and the types of sugar being fermented. Results of this current study indicate that the pH and hydraulic retention time played significant roles in determining the end products from the anaerobic acidification of maltose and glucose. Under uncontrolled pH, the anaerobic acidification of maltose ceased when pH in the reactor dropped below 5 while anaerobic acidification of glucose continued and produced ethanol as the main end-product. Under controlled pH, lactic acid was found to be the dominant end-product produced from both maltose and glucose at pH 5. Acetate was the main end-product from both maltose and glucose fermented at neutral pH (6 and 7). Short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 days could induce the production of ethanol from the anaerobic acidification of glucose. However, the anaerobic acidification of maltose could stop when short HRT of 2 days was applied in the reactor. This finding is significant for industrial fermentation and waste management systems, and selective production of different types of organic acids could be achieved by managing pH and HRT in the reactor.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#6 Clean Water and Sanitation
#7 Affordable and Clean Energy
#12 Responsible Consumption & Production

Source: InCites

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.83 Bioengineering
3.83.416 Anaerobic Digestion
Web Of Science research areas
Environmental Sciences
ESI research areas
Environment/Ecology
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