Impact of carbon and nitrogen sources on hydrogen production by a newly isolated Clostridium butyricum W5

Whilst biological process has been recognised as a promising approach for hydrogen production, the high production cost is still a key issue for moving this technology on an industrial step. Carbon and nitrogen feedstock represents 30–40% total costs of fermentative hydrogen production. This work was to investigate the impacts of carbon, and nitrogen sources and their concentrations on hydrogen fermentation by a newly isolated Clostridium butyricum W5. Biochemical performance of a batch fermentation process was evaluated by hydrogen production and yield, bacterial biomass and volatile fatty acids. Six raw or waste carbon sources and six organic or inorganic nitrogen sources were employed. Experimental data revealed that molasses and NH4NO3 were technically and economically suitable carbon and nitrogen sources for hydrogen production. The highest hydrogen yield of 1.63 mol H2/mol hexose was obtained using 100 g/L molasses and NH4NO3 1.2 g/L.