In situ hydrogen utilization for high fraction acetate production in mixed culture hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor.

Syngas fermentation is a promising route for resource recovery. Acetate is an important industrial chemical product and also an attractive precursor for liquid biofuels production. This study demonstrated high fraction acetate production from syngas (H₂ and CO₂) in a hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor, in which the hydrogen utilizing efficiency reached 100% during the operational period. The maximum concentration of acetate in batch mode was 12.5 g/L, while the acetate concentration in continuous mode with a hydraulic retention time of 9 days was 3.6 ± 0.1 g/L. Since butyrate concentration was rather low and below 0.1 g/L, the acetate fraction was higher than 99% in both batch and continuous modes. Microbial community analysis showed that the biofilm was dominated by Clostridium spp., such as Clostridium ljungdahlii and Clostridium drakei, the percentage of which was 70.5%. This study demonstrates a potential technology for the in situ utilization of syngas and valuable chemical production.