carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans is an extremely thermophilic anaerobic gram-positive bacterium that has the interesting property of producing hydrogen as a waste product while feeding on carbon monoxide and water. it also forms endospores. carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans endospore of c. hydrogenoformans scientific classification domain: bacteria phylum: bacillota class: clostridia order: thermoanaerobacterales family: thermoanaerobacteraceae genus: carboxydothermus species: c. hydrogenoformans binomial name carboxydothermus hydrogenoformanssvetlichny 1991 it was isolated from a hot spring on the russian volcanic island of kunashir by svetlichny et al. in 1991. its complete genome was sequenced in 2005 by a team of scientists of the institute for genomic research (tigr) according to tigr evolutionary biologist jonathan eisen, "c. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen." the microbe owes this to the fact that it has at least five different forms of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.