Isolation and characterization of a Klebsiella oxytoca strain for simultaneous azo-dye anaerobic reduction and bio-hydrogen production.

A facultative anaerobic bacteria strain GS-4-08, isolated from an anaerobic sequence batch reactor for synthetic dye wastewater treatment, was investigated for azo-dye decolorization. This bacterium was identified as a member of Klebsiella oxytoca based on Gram staining, morphology characterization and 16S rRNA gene analysis. It exhibited a good capacity of simultaneous decolorization and hydrogen production in the presence of electron donor. The hydrogen production was less affected even at a high Methyl Orange (MO) concentration of 0.5 mM, indicating a superior tolerability of this strain to MO. This efficient bio-hydrogen production from electron donor can not only avoid bacterial inhibition due to accumulation of volatile fatty acids during MO decolorization, but also can recover considerable energy from dye wastewater.