Fermentative hydrogen production by microbial consortium

Heat pre-treatment of the inoculum associated to the pH control was applied to select hydrogen-producing bacteria and endospores-forming bacteria. The source of inoculum to the heat pre-treatment was from a UASB reactor used in the slaughterhouse waste treatment. The molecular biology analyses indicated that the microbial consortium presented microorganisms affiliated with Enterobacter cloacae (97% and 98%), Clostridium sp. (98%) and Clostridium acetobutyricum (96%), recognized as H2 and volatile acids' producers. The following assays were carried out in batch reactors in order to verify the efficiencies of sucrose conversion to H2 by the microbial consortium: (1) 630.0 mg sucrose/L, (2) 1184.0 mg sucrose/L, (3) 1816.0 mg sucrose/L and (4) 4128.0 mg sucrose/L. The subsequent yields were obtained as follows: 15% (1.2 mol H2/mol sucrose), 20% (1.6 mol H2/mol sucrose), 15% (1.2 mol H2/mol sucrose) and 4% (0.3 mol H2/mol sucrose), respectively. The intermediary products were acetic acid, butyric acid, methanol and ethanol in all of the anaerobic reactors.