Hydrogen producer isolated from agricultural wastewater and molasses

Abstract

Biohydrogen is one of the alternative energy that has a potential to be convenient future green energy. The supremacy of using H2 is that the only product of O2 and H2 reaction is water without carbon dioxide. H2 can be produced by biological dark-fermentative hydrogen-producing bacteria. Bacillus is one of efficient hydrogen producer belonged to the division of Firmicutes which is related to highly-effective hydrogen producer Clostridium species. In this research, the new isolate of Bacillus coagulans is isolated from molasses from bioethanol plant in Kanchanaburi Province. Reducing sugar, sucrose and glucose were analyzed in molasses results sugar content 0.61, 3.0, and 0.08 g/100g, respectively. In this research, B. coagulans is focused on the ability to convert sugar into hydrogen. It is a gram positive, rod-shape bacterium that known to be an ideal biocatalyst for lignocellulosic biomass fermentation for biofuels production. Gas production were observed after 168 hr fermentation in modified sucrose-based synthetic medium. The isolate produces hydrogen gas 1.634 mol H2/mol hexose (48 mL in 30 mL synthetic medium supplemented with 15 g/L sucrose). Soluble metabolite such as volatile fatty acid (VFA) are observed.