Biohydrogen production from anaerobic fermentation of pineapple peels by immobilized co-cultured bacteria

Pineapple peel is one of the potential biomass feedstocks for biohydrogen production. The most convenient way to produce biohydrogen from lignocellulosic materials is through fermentation. The process is environmentally friendly and consumes low energy but has low production yield. One of the ways to increase the biohydrogen production is by utilising more than one species of hydrogen-producing bacteria, also known as co-culture, and immobilising them in a stable anaerobic condition. The suitability of the bacterial co-culture and their stability in immobilisation matrix were tested to achieve maximum biohydrogen production. The objective of this study was to improve biohydrogen production from pineapple peels via batch fermentation process using the most suitable immobilised co-culture. Pineapple peel was chosen due to its abundance and availability. Three different H2- producing bacteria were selected, namely Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Clostridium sporogenes, which were used as a single culture or combined as a co- culture. Their performances in free cell and immobilised form were then compared. For the immobilisation, activated carbon sponge and loofah sponge were used and compared. Finally, the cumulative production of biohydrogen and biohydrogen production rate were analysed by kinetics study. The modified Gompertz equation was fitted to the kinetics of cumulative biohydrogen production via Excel solver application. All fermentation processes were carried out at pH 7 and 32 ± 1 °C, with 30 % v/v inoculum of working volume in batch process. In terms of biohydrogen production rate in immobilized co-culture fermentation, activated carbon sponge was found to be a better support material compared than loofah sponge. The obtained biohydrogen production rate using immobilized co-culture on activated carbon sponge was 0.768 L H2/h/Lsubstrate at 24 h fermentation, approximately 45 % higher than using loofah sponge for the immobilization. In comparison with fermentation of free co- culture, the average biohydrogen production rate using co-culture immobilized onto activated carbon sponge was 67 % higher than that without immobilization. The highest cumulative and production rate of biohydrogen were achieved by the co- cultured bacteria Escherichia coli and Clostridium sporogenes, with 15.42 L of H2 and 1.416 L H2/h/Lsubstrate. The best fitting curve result for the cumulative biohydrogen production prove that the modified Gompertz equation fitted well with most experimental results. This finding would be useful for scaling up of biohydrogen production. In conclusion, the combination of activated carbon sponge and co-culture enhanced the biohydrogen production from pineapple residues. The activated carbon sponge was identified as a reasonable, easily obtained, and durable support material, which is suitable to be used in any plug flow bioreactor system in the future

Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship ETR300 : Wonderuz Kids House / Nur Kamilah Abd Razak… [et al.]

Our company is known as Wonderuz Kids House. The business is in the form of partnership, which consists of six members. Each partner contributes certain amounts of cash as agreed in our agreement. We also get a loan from Bank Rakyat. Our nature of business is providing services. Generally our business will be operating at No. 15, Jalan Hibiscus 2, Taman Tiya Vista, 94300,Kota Samarahan Sarawak. All partners are entitled to participate in the business management. Now days, people are busy doing work. Most of them are parents which have small children. There are many parents looking for best nursery for their child age 3 month to 4 years old. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to establish a nursery service. Our group chooses this business because this service is demanded

Biohydrogen production from pineapple biomass residue using immobilized co-culture of clostridium sporogenes and enterobacter aerogenes

In this study, the co-culture bacteria of Clostridium sporogenes and Enterobacter aerogenes were immobilized onto two different support materials: loofah sponge and activated carbon (AC) sponge. Both immobilized co-cultures were used in the batch fermentation of pineapple residues for biohydrogen production. The performance of both immobilized loofah and AC sponge was compared with free cell (FC) co-culture in terms of biohydrogen cumulative production and production rate within 48 hr fermentation time. It was found that the immobilized co-culture on AC sponge produced the highest rate of biohydrogen of 35.9 mmol/hr/Lsubstrate compared to loofah and FC co-culture after 24 hr fermentation. However, in terms of preservation of biohydrogen production rate, loofah as a support showed better consistency in terms of performance for 48 hr fermentation time compared to AC. This study also showed that the pH of substrate has a relation to the optical density (OD600) reduction of the bacteria, which could affect biohydrogen production rate

Kinetic analysis of biohydrogen formation using immobilized hydrogen-producing bacteria on activated carbon sponge from pineapple residues

Pineapple residues are one of potential biomass feedstock for biohydrogen production. The most convenient way to produce biohydrogen from pineapple residual is through fermentation proses. The process is environmentally friendly and consumes low energy, but generally the process has low yield production. Various strategies can be used to increase production, including the use of immobilized cells in fermentation. The performance of the process can be explained as realistically as possible by the appropriate kinetic model. In this work, a kinetic analysis on fermentative biohydrogen production using different hydrogenproducing bacteria immobilized onto activated carbon sponge has been performed. The performance of cumulative and biohydrogen production rate were assessed using modified Gompertz equation via Excel solver application. All fermentation processes were carried out at a condition of initial pH 7 and temperature of 32 ± 1°C, with 30% v/v inoculum of working volume in batch process. Three different hydrogen-producing bacteria were used, namely Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Clostridium sporogenes, were immobilized onto activated carbon sponge and in free cell form as comparison. Based on best fitting curve results on the cumulative biohydrogen production, it was found that modified Gompertz equation were fitted well with all the experimental results of all regression values, R2 were greater than 0.9. This study also presented that E. aerogenes and C. sporogenes able to produce better result compared to E.coli in term of production of biohydrogen The modified Gompertz equation would be useful for further analysis of biohydrogen production performance of selected hydrogen-producing bacteria culture immobilized onto activated sponge from pineapple residues

Knowledge and readiness of COVID-19 and MCO from the perspective of safety and health competent persons and training providers in Malaysia

The effects and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing Movement Control Order (MCO) will be felt for a long while, even after the MCO period ends. It is imperative to determine and measure the level of knowledge and readiness among Safety and Health Competent Persons (SHCPs) and Training Providers (TPs) in handling issues relating to COVID-19 during the MCO in Malaysia. A survey instrument was developed and validated by expert panels from academia and enforcement agency. A pilot study involving 40 respondents showed high reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.95 and 0.96 for SHCP and TP. A fullblown research was carried out for two weeks from the 14th to 28th of April 2020. This cross-sectional study covers all states in Malaysia and has been distributed to approximately 3,000 respondents with a response rate of 10.6 % from respondents employed in various sectors. The construction sectors recorded the highest percentage of responses as compared to other sectors at 37 % followed by manufacturing sectors at 23 % and public services and statutory authorities at 18 %. The companies are a mix of small, medium-sized enterprises (47 %), and large establishments (53 %), which altogether have a wide range of turnover rates. This study highlights that SHCPs and TPs in Malaysia have moderate post-MCO awareness and readiness in terms of knowledge, skills, standard operating procedure, social distancing, and basic equipment to control and curb workplace contagion after the MCO is lifted. There are uncertainties regarding the TP's willingness to budget for and bear the daily costs of the decontamination procedure, personal protective equipment usage, space availability, and the COVID-19 screening process. The readiness of SHCPs and TPs have been measured and identified. SHCPs and TPs need more knowledge in post-MCO COVID-19 management, especially in terms of the capacity of the trained staff to adequately screen workers for COVID-19 symptoms after the MCO is lifted. SHCPs and TPs believe they are underprepared, but they are willing to learn more about pandemic preparedness if training options are provided. A plan of action to address these issues has been proposed to DOSH Malaysia for guidance on formulating the next step forward

Enhancement of bioelectricity production from soil microbial fuel cell (SMFC) by additional glucose, nutrient broth and escherichia coli bacteria

Soil Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) is a device that using bacteria in soils as a biocatalyst. These bacteria, called exoelectrogenic bacteria are oxidizing organic substrates to release electrons, which then harvested in an external circuit to produce bioelectricity. Despite all the potential, the bioelectricity production from soils is still low and its relation with SMFCconditions is uncertain. Hence, the main objective in this study is to enhance and stabilize the bioelectricity production of SMFC by additional glucose, nutrient broth and Escherichia coli (E. coli) as exoelectrogenic bacteria. A number of factors of SMFC performance were first identified to be preliminary investigated, that is the type of electrode, water addition to soil and distance between anode to cathode. It has been established in this study to use SMFC with the configuration of 9.5 cm in diameter and 15 cm height of the plastic container, with the 12 cm distance between carbon felt of anode and cathode. The electricity produced was measured by using a multimeter in term of voltage reading (mV). From this study, the highest bioelectricity produced was obtained from SMFC using nutrient broth with a maximum voltage of 700 mV. It has found that the additional E. coli bacteria did not increase the bioelectricity production. The use of E. coli needed to be combined with nutrient broth in order to achieve high and stable bioelectricity. It can be suggested that the indigenous bacteria that exist in the soils possibly played the role in producing bioelectricity