Pathway of Fermentative Hydrogen Production by Sulfate-reducing Bacteria

Wall, Judy D.¹ 

[1] Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)

关键词: Hydrogenase mutants;    cytochrome c3;    Desulfovibrio;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1170223
RP-ID  :  DOE/UMissouri--08ER64691
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1170223

学科分类：燃料技术

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Biofuels are a promising source of sustainable energy. Such biofuels are intermediate products of microbial metabolism of renewable substrates, in particular, plant biomass. Not only are alcohols and solvents produced in this degradative process but energy-rich hydrogen as well. Non photosynthetic microbial hydrogen generation from compounds other than sugars has not been fully explored. We propose to examine the capacity of the abundant soil anaerobes, sulfate-reducing bacteria, for hydrogen generation from organic acids. These apparently simple pathways have yet to be clearly established. Information obtained may facilitate the exploitation of other microbes not yet readily examined by molecular tools. Identification of the flexibility of the metabolic processes to channel reductant to hydrogen will be useful in consideration of practical applications. Because the tools for genetic and molecular manipulation of sulfate-reducing bacteria of the genus Desulfovibrio are developed, our efforts will focus on two strains, D. vulgaris Hildenborough and Desulfovibrio G20.Therefore total metabolism, flux through the pathways, and regulation are likely to be limiting factors which we can elucidate in the following experiments.