Effect of some environmental parameters on fermentative hydrogen production by <i>Enterobacter cloacae</i> DM11

<jats:p> Fermentative hydrogen production was carried out by Enterobacter cloacae DM11, using glucose as the substrate. The effects of initial substrate concentration, initial medium pH, and temperature were investigated. Results showed that at an initial glucose concentration of 1.0% (m/v), the molar yield of hydrogen was 3.31 mol (mol glucose)<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup>. However, at higher initial glucose concentration, both the rate and cumulative volume of hydrogen production decreased. The pH of 6.5 ± 0.2 at a temperature of 37 °C was found most suitable with respect to maximum rate of production of hydrogen in batch fermentation. Activation enthalpies of fermentation and that of thermal deactivation of the present process were estimated following a modified Arrhenius equation. The values were 47.34 and 118.67 kJ mol<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup> K<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup>, respectively. The effect of the addition of Fe<jats:sup>2+</jats:sup> on hydrogen production was also studied. It revealed that the presence of iron (Fe<jats:sup>2+</jats:sup>) in the media up to a concentration of 20 mg L<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup> had a marginal enhancing effect on total hydrogen production. A simple model developed from the modified Gompertz equation was applied to estimate the hydrogen production potential, production rate, and lag-phase time in a batch process, based on the cumulative hydrogen production curves, using the software program Curve Expert 1.3. Key words: hydrogen, Enterobacter cloacae DM11, fermentation, glucose, H<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> yield. </jats:p>