Effect of furans and linoleic acid on hydrogen production

•Hydrogen production using furans and furans plus LA from glucose fed cultures.•Hydrogen yield less affected in LA treated cultures fed ≤1 g L−1 furans.•Clostridium sp. and Flavobacterium sp. observed in cultures fed furans plus LA.•Metabolic shift observed with varying culture source in the presence of furans.

The effects of furans (furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)) on hydrogen (H2) production using mixed anaerobic cultures were evaluated by conducting batch experiments. Two mixed anaerobic cultures (culture A and B) fed furans plus glucose and treated with and without linoleic acid (LA) at pH 5.5 were maintained at 37 °C. In the LA inhibited cultures A and B fed 0.75 g L−1 furfural and 0.25 g L−1 HMF, the maximum H2 yields observed were 1.89 ± 0.27 mol mol−1 glucose and 1.75 ± 0.22 mol mol−1 glucose, respectively. In cultures with maximum H2 yields, Clostridium sp. and Flavobacterium sp. were dominant. Acetate, butyrate and ethanol were the major soluble metabolites detected in cultures A and B whereas propionate was also dominant in culture B. A canonical correspondence analysis based on the byproducts and the relative abundance of the terminal-restriction fragments revealed less variation between cultures treated with LA and low correlation value between the factors and the species composition.

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