Biohydrogen production from synthetic wastewater as substrate was studied in anaerobic
small scale batch reactors. Enriched anaerobic mixed consortia sampled from various
environments were used as parent inocula to start the bioreactors. Selective enrichments
were achieved by various physical and chemical pretreatments and changes in the microbial communities were monitored by metagenomic and molecular diagnostics approaches. Experimental data showed the feasibility of biohydrogen production using
synthetic wastewater as substrate. The hydrogen generation capability of the different
mixed consortia is clearly dependent on the pretreatment methods. The described
approach opens the possibility for an alternative way towards simultaneous wastewater
treatment and renewable energy generation.