Hydrogen production from anaerobic fermentation by Clostridium papyrosolvens

Hydrogen production was studied through anaerobic fermentation by batch culture of Clostridium papyrosolvens. The effects of glucose concentration and pH in the process on hydrogen production were investigated. The results showed that the strain had strong tolerance to high concentration of glucose and organic acid. At the concentration of glucose 30 g/L and pH 4.5 in the process, the largest hydrogen production was obtained. The gas yield was up to 3 081.3 mL/L in 44 hours and the largest capacity of hydrogen production was 187.5 mL L^-1 h^-1. The percent of hydrogen was 67.5%, glucose consumption rate was 83.7% and hydrogen evolution rate was 1.06 mol H ₂/mol glucose. In this study, the low cost medium, which contained corn steep liquor and reduced iron powder instead of beef extract, peptone, L-Cys, vitamins, inorganic ion and so on, was used for hydrogen production. C. papyrosolvens could largely and effectively produce hydrogen in the low cost medium, which indicates this strain has great potential for industrial application.