Biohydrogen production beyond the Thauer limit by precision design of artificial microbial consortia

Dark fermentative biohydrogen (H2) production could become a key technology for providing renewable energy. Until now, the H2 yield is restricted to 4 moles of H2 per mole of glucose, referred to as the “Thauer limit”. Here we show, that precision design of artificial microbial consortia increased the H2 yield to 5.6 mol mol−1 glucose, 40% higher than the Thauer limit. In addition, the volumetric H2 production rates of our defined artificial consortia are superior compared to any mono-, co- or multi-culture system reported to date. We hope this study to be a major leap forward in the engineering of artificial microbial consortia through precision design and provide a breakthrough in energy science, biotechnology and ecology. Constructing artificial consortia with this drawing-board approach could in future increase volumetric production rates and yields of other bioprocesses. Our artificial consortia engineering blueprint might pave the way for the development of a H2 production bioindustry.
Ergal et al. report that biohydrogen production from glucose by an engineered microbial consortium of Clostridium acetobutylicum and Enterobacter aerogenes can be 40% higher than the “Thauer limit”. They further show that the volumetric H2 production rates of their system are superior compared to any mono-, co- or multi-culture system reported to date.