Dark fermentative hydrogen production from cheese whey using hydrogen-producing bacteria isolated from Mount Pancar hot spring, West Java

Abstract

One of the most promising ways to produce high hydrogen yield is through dark fermentation by using dark fermentative bacteria due to the capability of these microbial agents to convert various organic compounds, particularly sugar, into hydrogen gas. In this study, three Gram-positive hydrogen-producing bacteria with a different character of colony on agar, namely as RP 009, RP 010, and RP 011, had been successfully isolated from Mount Pancar hot spring, West Java. All these isolates were able to produce hydrogen gas in all cheese whey concentration, consisting of cheese whey 30%, 60%, and 100%. RP 011 was the most favorable hydrogen producers in this study due to its high hydrogen productivity (4,400.625 ml biogas/L medium) as well as its ability to adapt and consecutively produce hydrogen even in the very high concentration of the organic compound. The best cheese whey concentration for hydrogen production in this study was 60%, considering the efficiency and effectiveness of the organic compound conversion into hydrogen gas. Ultimately, this study presented the potential of high hydrogen productivity of indigenous hot spring bacteria isolated from Mount Pancar hot spring in which had major potential for environmentally friendly bioenergy and biomass refineries.

Short Communication: The emergence and rise of indigenous thermophilic bacteria exploration from hot springs in Indonesia

“…This approach was first performed by Huber et al in 1996), before the whole-genome sequencing method by Cho et al in 2000. The conventional method is known to be the oldest, and also has some limitations, resulting from the inadequate number of culturable microbes in the desired environment (Chaudhary et al 2019). The current papers with reports on this technique were mainly based on samples sourced from Mount Pancar, West Java, and consequently used for hydrogen production, amylolytic bacteria isolated from Jailolo Bay, North Maluku, and amylase from Pulu hot spring, Sulawesi (Arfah et al 2020;Gazali et al 2020;Satrimafitrah et al 2020). These indicate the reasons for a high percentage (38%) application as an exploration method.…”

“…The top 4 explored enzymes include amylase (17%), protease (12%), lipase (9%), and xylanase (8%). Meanwhile, non-enzyme applications mostly involve the use of thermophilic bacteria in biosurfactant or biohydrogen production (Geraldi et al 2019;Gazali et al 2020).…”