Pol J Microbiol. 2018. Article in Press. DOI: 10.21307/pjm-2018-033

ABDULLAHI MOHAMMED1,2, MOHD FIRDAUS ABDUL-WAHAB2, MAZLAN HASHIM3,
ABDUL HAFIDZ OMAR4, MOHD NADZRI MD REBA3, MOHD FARID MUHAMAD SAID5,
KAMARUZAMAN SOEED4, SITI AISYAH ALIAS6,7, JERZY SMYKLA8,9,
MUSTAPHA ABBA10 and ZAHARAH IBRAHIM2*

1 Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria
2 Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
3 Geoscience and Digital Earth Centre (INSTeG), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
4 Sports Innovation Technology Centre (SITC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
5 Automotive Development Centre (ADC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
6 Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7 National Antarctic Research Centre, Institute of Graduate Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
8 Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, USA
9 Department of Biodiversity, Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland
10 Department of Microbiology, Bauchi State University Gadau, Bauchi, Nigeria

*Corresponding author: Z. Ibrahim, Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia; e-mail: zaharah@utm.my

Submitted 2 November 2017, revised and accepted 20 February 2018

Abstract
Lower temperature biohydrogen production has always been attractive, due to the lower energy requirements. However, the slow metabolic rate of psychrotolerant biohydrogen-producing bacteria is a common problem that affects their biohydrogen yield. This study reports on the improved substrate synthesis and biohydrogen productivity by the psychrotolerant Klebsiella sp. strain ABZ11, isolated from Antarctic seawater sample. The isolate was screened for biohydrogen production at 30°C, under facultative anaerobic condition. The isolate is able to ferment glucose, fructose and sucrose with biohydrogen production rate and yield of 0.8 mol/l/h and 3.8 mol/g, respectively at 10 g/l glucose concentration. It also showed 74% carbohydrate uptake and 95% oxygen uptake ability, and a wide growth temperature range with optimum at 37°C. Klebsiella sp. ABZ11 has a short biohydrogen production lag phase, fast substrate uptake and is able to tolerate the presence of oxygen in the culture medium. Thus, the isolate has a potential to be used for lower temperature biohydrogen production process.

Key words: Klebsiella sp., biohydrogen, facultative psychrotolerant, oxygen uptake, carbohydrate consumption

© 2018 Abdullahi Mohammed et al.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)