Matching different inorganic compounds as mixture of electron donors to improve CO2 fixation by nonphotosynthetic microbial community without hydrogen.

The dominant bacteria in nonphotosynthetic microbial community (NPMC) isolated from the ocean were identified by PCR-DGGE. The results revealed that the dominant microorganisms in cultures of NPMC differed when Na(2)S, Na(2)S(2)O(3), and NaNO(2) were used as the electron donor to reduce CO(2). These findings implied that different microorganisms in the NPMC respond to different inorganic compound as suitable electron donor, indicating that matching of Na(2)S, Na(2)S(2)O(3), and NaNO(2) may provide mixed electron donors that increase the ability of NPMC to fix CO(2). Accordingly, the central composite response surface method (RSM) was used to predict the optimal concentration and match of Na(2)S, Na(2)S(2)O(3), and NaNO(2) as mixed electron donors to improve CO(2) fixation efficiency under aerobic and anaerobic conditions without hydrogen. The results indicated that 0.46% NaNO(2), 0.50% Na(2)S(2)O(3), and 1.25% Na(2)S were the optimal match under aerobic conditions, while 1.04% NaNO(2), 1.07% Na(2)S(2)O(3), and 0.98% Na(2)S were the optimal match under anaerobic conditions. Under these conditions, the fixed CO(2) by NPMC was determined to be 387.51 and 512.57 mg/L, respectively, which obviously exceeded those values obtained prior to optimization (5.94 and 7.14 mg/L, respectively), as well as that obtained when hydrogen was used as the electron donor (91.60 mg/L).