Phytosynthesized iron oxide nanoparticles and ferrous iron on fermentative hydrogen production using Enterobacter cloacae: Evaluation and comparison of the effects

•The hydrogen production on supplementation of FeNPs was enhanced.•The highest hydrogen yield was obtained from sucrose fed system by Enterobacter cloacae.•PCA was used to identify the variances of metabolites in fermentative hydrogen process.•The addition of FeNPs did not change the metabolic pathway for H2 production.

The effects of FeSO4 and synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles (0–250 mg/L) on fermentative hydrogen production from glucose and sucrose, using Enterobacter cloacae were investigated, to find out the enhancement of efficiency. The maximum hydrogen yields of 1.7 ± 0.017 mol H2/mol glucose and 5.19 ± 0.12 mol H2/mol sucrose were obtained with 25 mg/L of ferrous iron supplementation. In comparison, the maximum hydrogen yields of 2.07 ± 0.07 mol H2/mol glucose and 5.44 ± 0.27 mol H2/mol sucrose were achieved with 125 mg/L and 200 mg/L of iron oxide nanoparticles, respectively. These results indicate that the enhancement of hydrogen production on the supplementation of iron oxide nanoparticles was found to be considerably higher than that of ferrous iron supplementation. The activity of E. cloacae in a glucose and sucrose fed systems was increased by the addition of iron oxide nanoparticles, but the metabolic pathway was not changed. The results revealed that the glucose and sucrose fed systems conformed to the acetate/butyrate fermentation type.