Biodiesel manufacturing units discharge effluents rich in glycerol. The need is to convert crude glycerol (CG) into useful products such as hydrogen (H-2). Under batch culture, Bacillus thuringiensis EGU45 adapted on pure glycerol (PG, 2% v/v) resulted in an H-2 yield of 0.646 mol/mol glycerol consumed on minimal media (250 mL) supplemented with 1% ammonium nitrate at 37 degrees C over 4 days. Here, H-2 constituted 67% of the total biogas. Under continuous culture, at 2 days of hydraulic retention time, B. thuringiensis immobilized on ligno-cellulosic materials (banana leaves - BL, 10% v/v) resulted in a H-2 yield of 0.386 mol/mol PG consumed. On CG, the maximal H-2 yield of 0.393 mol/mol feed consumed was recorded. In brief, B. thuringiensis could transform CG, on limited resources - minimal medium with sodium nitrate, by immobilizing them on cheap and easily available biowaste, which makes it a suitable candidate for H-2 production on a large scale. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.