Possibility of hydrogen production during cheese whey fermentation process by different strains of psychrophilic bacteria

The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of applying psychrophilic bacteria for hydrogen production in whey biofermentation process. Experiments were conducted in 500-mL anaerobic respirometers at a temperature of 20 °C. The initial organic load of fermentation tanks reached 10 g COD/L. Depending on the experimental variant, analyses were carried out for psychrophilic bacteria isolated from underground water and from demersal lake water that represented Gammaproteobacteria class – Rahnella aquatilis (9 strains) and Firmicutes phylum: Carnobacterium maltaromaticum, Trichococcus collinsii and Clostridium algidixylanolyticum. The effectiveness of biogas production was diversified and strain-specific, ranging from 126.48 to 4737.72 mL/g bacterial biomass. The highest concentration of H2 in biogas, ranging from 65.15% to 69.12% and effectiveness of H2 production from 1587.47 to 3087.57 mL/g bacterial biomass, were determined for R. aquatilis strains isolated from the demersal lake water. The lowest H2 concentration in the gaseous metabolites, i.e. 15.46% to 20.70%, was noted for bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes.