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Abstract As awareness of environmental issues gets high, the need for exploiting organic wastes for clean and renewable energy production as well as value-added products gets higher. Sugarcane vinasse is characterized by its large quantity and high strength load (97.1 – 153 g COD.L -1 ). It can be valorized during dark fermentation through biohydrogen production or by yielding high value-added acids. The effects of temperature, inocula type, initial S/X, and reactor configuration on the acclimation of the acidogens were studied. It was concluded that a value of 7 g COD.g -1 VS was the optimal initial S/X ratio to maximize the thermophilic hydrogen yield from the undiluted vinasse at any of the initial pH of 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0. The thermophilic continuous operation of the multi-stage system revealed that the highest hydrogen production evolved from the first acidogenic reactor at the shortest HRT of 12 h with a cycle length of 4h (15 L.L-1 .d-1 ). The dilution of the first acidogenic reactor (R1) effluent with the other molasses wastewater (MW) applied to the second acidogenic reactor (R2) at an HRT of 6 h showed the highest hydrogen production of 1.09 L.L-1 .d-1 . The highest methane production was 6.7 L.L1 .d-1 at an HRT of 30 h when a ratio of 1:1 of the methanogenic reactor (R3) effluent was returned to the R2 influent. |