Synergistic pretreated corn stalk degradation and biohydrogen production by co-culture bacteria

In order to use corn stalks as ideal raw materials for fermentative bio-hydrogen production, two new strains were isolated from a continuous-flow H₂ producing reactor (ZL92114474.1). One is Clostridium sp. X9 (NCBI:EU434651), a bacterium for anaerobic high-efficient cellulose degradation and hydrogen production, the other is Ethanoigenens harbinense B2 (NCBI:EU639425), a bacterium for anaerobic high-efficient ethanol fermentation and hydrogen production. Experimental results show that H₂ production from corn stalks fermentation following with steam explosion pretreatment is higher than that directly from corn stalks by co-culture bacteria X9 and B2, and the co-culture bacteria are more preponderant than X9 or B2 individually for fermentative biohydrogen production. Co-culture bacteria X9 and B2 have high H₂ production rate of 8.7 mmol/g and corn stalk degradation degree of 74% feeding with corn stalk pretreated by steam explosion. The liquid end-products are mostly ethanol, butyrate and acetate. The study indicates that the biohydrogen production from corn stalk by co-culture bacteria X9 and B2 has good foreground.