Biological H2 potential harvested from complex gelatinaceous wastewater via attached versus suspended growth culture anaerobes.

The effect of cultural growth treating gelatinaceous wastewater on hydrogen fermentative was assessed using up-flow multi-stage anaerobic sponge reactor (UMASR) and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (AnSBR). Both reactors were operated at five hydraulic retention times (HRTs). UMASR achieved the maximum COD removal efficiency of 60.2±4.4% at HRT of 48h. Moreover, UMASR exhibited superiority in the course of carbohydrates and proteins removal efficiencies' of 100 and 52.5±2.4% due to high amylase and protease activities' of 4.1±0.3 and 0.032±0.002U, respectively. Contrariwise, AnSBR assigned for the peak hydrogen production rate of 1.17±0.14L/L/day at HRT of 24-h. Lipase activity was quite high (0.307±0.023U) in AnSBR resulting in removal efficiency of 35.2±2.1% for lipids. Stover-Kincannon model emphasized that UMASR required lesser volume than AnSBR to sustain the same substrate degradation efficacy. Nevertheless, the net gain energy harvested from AnSBR surpassed UMASR by 4.0-folds at HRT of 24-h.