A novel anaerobic co-culture system for bio-hydrogen production from sugarcane bagasse

A novel co-culture of Clostridium thermocellum and Thermoanaerobacterium aotearoense with pretreated sugarcane bagasse (SCB) under mild alkali conditions for bio-hydrogen production was established, exhibiting a cost-effective and synergetic advantage in bio-hydrogen production over monoculture of C. thermocellum or T. aotearoense with untreated SCB. The optimized pretreatment conditions were established to be 3% NaOH, and a liquid to solid ratio of 25:1 at 80 °C for 3 h. A final hydrogen production of 50.05 ± 1.51 mmol/L was achieved with 40 g/L pretreated SCB at 55 °C. The established co-culture system provides a novel consolidated bio-processing strategy for bioconversion of SCB to bio-hydrogen.