Bioaugmentation with Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum W16 to enhance thermophilic hydrogen production using corn stover hydrolysate

In the present work, with corn stover hydrolysate as the substrate, an efficient hydrogen-producing thermophile, Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum W16, was added to three kinds of seed sludge (rotten corn stover (RCS), cow dung compost (CDC), and sludge from anaerobic digestion (SAD)) to investigate the effect of bioaugmentation on thermophilic hydrogen production. Batch test results indicate that the bioaugmentation with a small amount of the strain T. thermosaccharolyticum W16 (5% of total microbes) increased the hydrogen yield to varying degrees (RCS: from 8.78 to 9.90 mmol H ₂ /g utilized sugar; CDC: from 8.18 to 8.42 mmol H ₂ /g utilized sugar; SAD: from 8.55 to 9.17 mmol H ₂ /g utilized sugar). The bioaugmentation process also influenced the soluble metabolites composition towards more acetate and less butyrate production for RCS, and more acetate and less ethanol accumulation for SAD. Microbial community analysis indicates that Thermoanaerobacterium spp. and Clostridium spp. dominated microbial community in all situations and might be mainly responsible for thermophilic hydrogen generation. For RCS and SAD, the bioaugmentation obviously increased the relative abundance of the strain T. thermosaccharolyticum W16 in microbial community, which might be the main reason for the improvement of hydrogen production in these cases.