Metabolic flux network analysis of fermentative hydrogen production: Using Clostridium tyrobutyricum as an example

This study applies metabolic flux network analysis (MFA) to evaluate the metabolic flux of fermentative hydrogen production (FHP) with the use of Clostridium tyrobutyricum fed with either glucose or lactate/acetate as substrates. The MFA results suggest that hydraulic retention time (HRT) presents significant impact on hydrogen production from glucose. At HRT between 4 and 18h, increase of HRT increased hydrogen production but decreased lactate production, while at HRT below 4h decrease of HRT increased hydrogen production but decreased lactate production. The flux for lactate, butyrate and acetate seemed to affect H₂ production, due presumably to their impacts on the balance of NADH, ferredoxin and ATP. It is suggested that the MFA can be a useful tool to provide valuable information for optimization and design of the fermentative hydrogen production process.