The hydrogen production characteristics of mixed photoheterotrophic culture

Photofermentative hydrogen production from glucose was investigated using the mixed photoheterotrophic culture (NG07). High-throughput sequencing was applied to describe the characteristics of the diversity of the microbial community. Bioinformatic analysis of the sequencing result showed that photosynthetic bacteria were dominant in the microbial populations. Several key parameters were investigated by NG07 to assess biohydrogen production. Under optimal condition with 70 mM glucose, 5.0 mg/L Fe2+, and 35 °C temperature, a high hydrogen production rate (HPR) was 136.0 ± 5.6 mL/L/h, which is higher than previous reports. That was the first time the study had found the mixed microbial community could resist the high temperature of 45 °C for photohydrogen generation, and increasing glucose concentration would result in higher hydrogen yield. These results implied that the mixed photoheterotrophic culture had a high temperature tolerance and the possibility of bio-hydrogen production in high temperature region.