Thermoanaerobium brockii is a representative thermophilic, hydrolytic bacterium, which ferments glucose, via the Embden–Meyerhof Parnas Pathway.
The reduced end-products of glucose fermentation are enzymatically formed from pyruvate, via the following mechanisms: lactate by fructose 1-6 all-phosphate (F6P) activated lactate dehydrogenase; H2 by pyruvate ferredoxin oxidoreductase and hydrogenase; and ethanol via NADH- and NADPH-linked alcohol dehydrogenase.
[1] By its side, the acidogenic activity was found in the early 20th century, but it was not until the mid-1960s that the engineering of phases separation was assumed in order to improve the stability and waste digesters treatment.
[2] In this phase, complex molecules (carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins) are depolymerized into soluble compounds by hydrolytic enzymes (cellulases, hemicellulases, amylases, lipases and proteases).
[3][4][5] Acetogenesis is one of the main reactions of this stage, in this, the intermediary metabolites produced are metabolized to acetate, hydrogen and carbonic gas by the three main groups of bacteria: For the acetic acid production are considered three kind of bacteria: Winter y Wolfe, in 1979, demonstrated that A. woodii in syntrophic association with Methanosarcina produce methane and carbon dioxide from fructose, instead of three molecules of acetate.