Abstract

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Rhodobacter Sphaeroidesw as isolated from four environmental samples, lake, mud, soil andstream by specific enrichment. Identification of the isolate by cultural characteristics, Gram stain, sugar fermentations and sulfide oxidation showed that it is Rhodobacter Sphaeroidesby Bergey'scriteria. R. Sphaeroidescan produce hydrogen gas as a product of metabolism, and previous studies have shown that the organism is associated with waste treatment. Therefore, the potentiality of the isolate for hydrogen gas production at ambient environmental conditions using fermented corn waste water and glucose which served as a control was investigated. The effect of light intensity on the potential of the isolate was evaluated. At ambient environmental conditions, the yield of hydrogen gas by the organism was 7.8ml/g with fermented corn waste water and 9.8ml/g with glucose. The conversion efficiency values of R. sphaeroides for fermented corn waste water and glucose were statistically significant (p < 0.05). In the optimization experiments, there was increasing hydrogen evolution withincreasing light intensities. The highest hydrogen gas was recorded at 120W and the least was obtained at 150W while there was no yield of hydrogen gas at 200W. The results show that R. sphaeroidesis valuable for the treatment of organic carbon waste and for the realization of economic products

Keywords: Rhodobacter Sphaeroides, Hydrogen gas production Fermented corn waste water.