Desulfurococcus amyiolyticus DSM 16532 is a hyperthermophilic archaeon that can grow on cellulose. Due to the relevance of cellulose as a second generation biofuel production substrate this carbon compound was selected for molecular hydrogen (H-2) production studies. D. amyiolyticus has several genes that are necessary for H-2 production, such as pyruvate ferredoxin oxidoreductase, formate dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate ferredoxin oxidoreductase and two membrane-bound hydrogenases. Moreover, D. amyiolyticus comprises many physiological features that could promote H-2 production. Here, the biohydrogen production potential of D. amyiolyticus was analysed in batch cultivation mode in bioreactors on cellulose and fructose. Analysing the cell specific biohydrogen production rates revealed that the organism possesses an intriguing physiological potential to produce H-2, at rates higher or equal to other known biohydrogen producing strains. However, with respect to the volumetric H-2 production rate the limiting factor could be related to low cell densities. Given the physiological capacity of D. amylolyticus the organism could still be envisioned to be optimized as a second generation H-2 cell factory. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.