As a sustainable energy source, hydrogen is a promising
alternative to fossil fuels. It is a clean and environmentally
friendly fuel, which produces only water after combustion.
Biologically, hydrogen can be produced by photosynthetic and
fermentative routes [1]. Fermentative hydrogen can be
generated by various types of microorganisms. Clostridium
spp. is one of those organisms capable of converting sucrose
to hydrogen and carbon dioxide [2,3].
Although the yield of hydrogen production by Clostridium
spp. is considered high, it still requires further improvement
for industrial application. Immobilization technique is a practical
tool used to enhance the activity of microorganisms
involved in the fermentation systems [4,5]. The advantages of
immobilized cells over free cells include more tolerant to
environment perturbation, reusable, process stability and
higher biological activity since higher cell density can be
applied [6]. Therefore, immobilization could lead to a high
production rate and might be the best choice in terms of the
feasibility of large scale and continuous processing [7]. Support
materials for cell immobilization can be synthetic polymers,
such as alginate and polyvinyl alcohol, or naturally available,
such as lignocellulosic materials from agricultural residues.
Synthetic support materials have the advantage of high
stability. However, there are some disadvantages such as high
cost, low substrate conversion efficiency and toxic to microorganisms
[8]. Therefore, there is an interest toward the use of
natural materials for cell immobilization in order to overcome
these problems. In this study, sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was
used to immobilize the seed inoculum for hydrogen fermentation
in order to improve hydrogen production efficiency as