Hydrogen online monitoring based on thermal conductivity for anaerobic microorganisms

Abstract

AbstractH2‐producing microorganisms are a promising source of sustainable biohydrogen. However, most H2‐producing microorganisms are anaerobes, which are difficult to cultivate and characterize. While several methods for measuring H2 exist, common H2 sensors often require oxygen, making them unsuitable for anaerobic processes. Other sensors can often not be operated at high gas humidity. Thus, we applied thermal conductivity (TC) sensors and developed a parallelized, online H2 monitoring for time‐efficient characterization of H2 production by anaerobes. Since TC sensors are nonspecific for H2, the cross‐sensitivity of the sensors was evaluated regarding temperature, gas humidity, and CO2 concentrations. The systems' measurement range was validated with two anaerobes: a high H2‐producer (Clostridium pasteurianum) and a low H2‐producer (Phocaeicola vulgatus). Online monitoring of H2 production in shake flask cultivations was demonstrated, and H2 transfer rates were derived. Combined with online CO2 and pressure measurements, molar gas balances of the cultivations were closed, and an anaerobic respiration quotient was calculated. Thus, insight into the effect of medium components and inhibitory cultivation conditions on H2 production with the model anaerobes was gained. The presented online H2 monitoring method can accelerate the characterization of anaerobes for biohydrogen production and reveal metabolic changes without expensive equipment and offline analysis.