Biohydrogen production by Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum TERI S7 from oil reservoir flow pipeline

Thermophilic dark fermentative hydrogen producing bacterial strain, TERI S7, isolated from an oil reservoir flow pipeline located in Mumbai, India, showed 98% identity with Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum by 16S rRNA gene analysis. It produced 1450–1900 ml/L hydrogen under both acidic and alkaline conditions; at a temperature range of 45–60 °C. The maximum hydrogen yield was 2.5 ± 0.2 mol H₂/mol glucose, 2.2 ± 0.2 mol H₂/mol xylose and 5.2 ± 0.2 mol H₂/mol sucrose, when the respective sugars were used as carbon source. The cumulative hydrogen production, hydrogen production rate and specific hydrogen production rate by the strain TERI S7 with sucrose as carbon source was found to be 1704 ± 105 ml/L, 71 ± 6 ml/L/h and 142 ± 13 ml/g/h respectively. Major soluble metabolites produced during fermentation were acetic acid and butyric acid. The strain TERI S7 was also observed to produce hydrogen continuously up to 48 h at pH 3.9.