Cultivation of syntrophic anaerobic bacteria in membrane-separated culture devices

A dialysis culture device was used for growth of syntrophic fatty acid-oxidizing and ethanol-oxidizing anaerobic bacteria. A pure culture of the fatty acid oxidizer Clostridium bryantii was grown inside dialysis tubing which was surrounded by a pure culture of Desulfovibrio vulgaris. The same apparatus was used for the syntrophic cultivation of Pelobacter acetylenicus and Acetobacterium woodii with ethanol as substrate. In both cases, substrate degradation and product formation were about half as fast as with the homogeneously mixed control cultures. In the compartment of the hydrogen producer, the concentration of free hydrogen during syntrophic ethanol degradation was about 10 times as high as in that of the hydrogen utilizer, whereas the homogeneously mixed culture exhibited an intermediate hydrogen partial pressure.