Biohydrogen production: Current perspectives and the way forward

Abstract Global research is moving forward in developing biological production of hydrogen (biohydrogen) as a renewable energy source to alleviate stresses due to carbon dioxide emissions and depleting fossil fuels resource. Biohydrogen has the potential to replace current hydrogen production technologies relying heavily on fossil fuels through electricity generation. While biohydrogen research is still immature, extensive work on laboratory- and pilot-scale systems with promising prospects has been reported. This work presents a review of advances in biohydrogen production focusing on production pathways, microbiology, as well as bioreactor configuration and operation. Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are also outlined.

[1]  Juanita Mathews,et al.  Characterization of hydrogen production by engineered Escherichia coli strains using rich defined media , 2010 .

[2]  Zhong Hu,et al.  Statistical optimization of fermentative hydrogen production from xylose by newly isolated Enterobacter sp. CN1 , 2010 .

[3]  J. Lay,et al.  Biohydrogen generation by mesophilic anaerobic fermentation of microcrystalline cellulose. , 2001, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[4]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Biological hydrogen production by Clostridium acetobutylicum in an unsaturated flow reactor. , 2006, Water research.

[5]  Bea-Ven Chang,et al.  Using filtrate of waste biosolids to effectively produce bio-hydrogen by anaerobic fermentation. , 2003, Water research.

[6]  R. Prakasham,et al.  Biohydrogen production process optimization using anaerobic mixed consortia: a prelude study for use of agro-industrial material hydrolysate as substrate. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[7]  A. Melis,et al.  Hydrogen production. Green algae as a source of energy. , 2001, Plant physiology.

[8]  F. Kargı,et al.  Bio-hydrogen production from waste materials , 2006 .

[9]  René H. Wijffels,et al.  Photobiological hydrogen production: photochemical e)ciency and bioreactor design , 2002 .

[10]  Tatsushi Kawai,et al.  Biological production of hydrogen from cellulose by natural anaerobic microflora , 1995 .

[11]  Jo-Shu Chang,et al.  Fermentative hydrogen production and bacterial community structure in high‐rate anaerobic bioreactors containing silicone‐immobilized and self‐flocculated sludge , 2006, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[12]  Hubert Bahl,et al.  Parameters Affecting Solvent Production by Clostridium pasteurianum , 1992, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[13]  Wen-Song Tan,et al.  Effect of culture conditions on producing and uptake hydrogen flux of biohydrogen fermentation by metabolic flux analysis method. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[14]  H. Fang,et al.  Microbial diversity of a mesophilic hydrogen-producing sludge , 2001, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[15]  Arnau Montagud,et al.  Metabolic flux analysis of the hydrogen production potential in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 , 2009 .

[16]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  The role of acid incubation in rapid immobilization of hydrogen-producing culture in anaerobic upflow column reactors , 2008 .

[17]  Sang-Eun Oh,et al.  Biohydrogen gas production from food processing and domestic wastewaters , 2005 .

[18]  K. Sakka,et al.  Conversion of chitinous wastes to hydrogen gas by Clostridium paraputrificum M-21. , 2001, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[19]  R. Nandi,et al.  Microbial production of hydrogen: an overview. , 1998, Critical reviews in microbiology.

[20]  Alfons J. M. Stams,et al.  Distinctive properties of high hydrogen producing extreme thermophiles, Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga elfii , 2002 .

[21]  Duu-Jong Lee,et al.  Biohydrogen production from cellobiose in phenol and cresol-containing medium using Clostridium sp. R1 , 2010 .

[22]  Heung-Joo Kim,et al.  Metabolic-flux analysis of hydrogen production pathway in Citrobacter amalonaticus Y19 , 2008 .

[23]  Tong Zhang,et al.  Biohydrogen production from starch in wastewater under thermophilic condition. , 2003, Journal of environmental management.

[24]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Critical assessment of anaerobic processes for continuous biohydrogen production from organic wastewater , 2010 .

[25]  E. Crabbe,et al.  Influence of initial pH on hydrogen production from cheese whey. , 2005, Journal of biotechnology.

[26]  John R. Benemann,et al.  Biological hydrogen production , 1995 .

[27]  A. Stams,et al.  Utilisation of biomass for the supply of energy carriers , 1999, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[28]  Eun Yeol Lee,et al.  Fermentative hydrogen production by a new chemoheterotrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4 , 2002 .

[29]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Feasibility studies on the fermentative hydrogen production by recombinant Escherichia coli BL-21 , 2006 .

[30]  Qi Zhou,et al.  Evaluation of pretreatment methods on mixed inoculum for both batch and continuous thermophilic biohydrogen production from cassava stillage. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[31]  Jae-Hoon Hwang,et al.  Feasibility of hydrogen production from ripened fruits by a combined two-stage (dark/dark) fermentation system. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[32]  Richard Sparling,et al.  Hydrogen production from inhibited anaerobic composters , 1997 .

[33]  Sung Ho Yeom,et al.  Immobilization methods for continuous hydrogen gas production biofilm formation versus granulation , 2005 .

[34]  S. Venkata Mohan,et al.  Optimization and evaluation of fermentative hydrogen production and wastewater treatment processes using data enveloping analysis (DEA) and Taguchi design of experimental (DOE) methodology , 2009 .

[35]  K. K. Meher,et al.  High biohydrogen yielding Clostridium sp. DMHC-10 isolated from sludge of distillery waste treatment plant , 2010 .

[36]  Hang-Sik Shin,et al.  Hydrogen production from food waste in anaerobic mesophilic and thermophilic acidogenesis , 2004 .

[37]  Ioannis V. Skiadas,et al.  Biohydrogen production from sweet sorghum biomass using mixed acidogenic cultures and pure cultures of Ruminococcus albus. , 2007 .

[38]  K. Fan,et al.  H(2) production through anaerobic mixed culture: effect of batch S(0)/X(0) and shock loading in CSTR. , 2004, Chemosphere.

[39]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Improvement of fermentative hydrogen production: various approaches , 2004, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[40]  S. S. Cheng,et al.  Effects of volatile fatty acids on a thermophilic anaerobic hydrogen fermentation process degrading peptone. , 2002, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[41]  Franco Cecchi,et al.  Semi-continuous solid substrate anaerobic reactors for H2 production from organic waste: Mesophilic versus thermophilic regime , 2005 .

[42]  P. Claassen,et al.  Dark hydrogen fermentations , 2003 .

[43]  Han-Qing Yu,et al.  Hydrogen production from rice winery wastewater in an upflow anaerobic reactor by using mixed anaerobic cultures , 2002 .

[44]  Bent Sørensen,et al.  Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Emerging Technologies and Applications , 2011 .

[45]  G. Antonopoulou,et al.  Biofuels generation from sweet sorghum: fermentative hydrogen production and anaerobic digestion of the remaining biomass. , 2008, Bioresource technology.

[46]  Gerasimos Lyberatos,et al.  Biohydrogen Production from Biomass and Wastes via Dark Fermentation: A Review , 2010 .

[47]  S. M. Raj,et al.  A pilot-scale study of biohydrogen production from distillery effluent using defined bacterial co-culture , 2008 .

[48]  M. Kuwahara,et al.  Production of methane gas from Japanese cedar chips pretreated by various delignification methods , 2006 .

[49]  Edward Crabbe,et al.  Influence of Culture Parameters on Biological Hydrogen Production by Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum ATCC 27021 , 2005 .

[50]  V C Kalia,et al.  Increased H2 production by immobilized microorganisms , 1995, World journal of microbiology & biotechnology.

[51]  Hang-Sik Shin,et al.  FEASIBILITY OF BIOHYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY ANAEROBIC CO-DIGESTION OF FOOD WASTE AND SEWAGE SLUDGE , 2004 .

[52]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Hydrogen production in a single chamber microbial electrolysis cell lacking a membrane. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[53]  T. Noike,et al.  Biological hydrogen potential of materials characteristic of the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes. , 2000, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[54]  Hang-Sik Shin,et al.  Biohydrogen production by anaerobic fermentation of food waste , 2004 .

[55]  Guido Zacchi,et al.  Techno-economic analysis of a two-step biological process producing hydrogen and methane. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[56]  B. Kroposki,et al.  Renewable hydrogen production , 2008 .

[57]  H. Yokoi,et al.  Microbial production of hydrogen from starch-manufacturing wastes , 2002 .

[58]  John R. Benemann,et al.  Hydrogen production by microalgae , 2000, Journal of Applied Phycology.

[59]  B. Chang,et al.  Producing hydrogen from wastewater sludge by Clostridium bifermentans. , 2003, Journal of biotechnology.

[60]  Dipankar Ghosh,et al.  Advances in fermentative biohydrogen production: the way forward? , 2009, Trends in biotechnology.

[61]  A. Melis,et al.  Development of the light-harvesting chlorophyll antenna in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is regulated by the novel Tla1 gene , 2007, Planta.

[62]  Boris I. Yakobson,et al.  Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program Multi-Year Research, Development and Demonstration Plan: , 2010 .

[63]  Jianli Hu,et al.  An overview of hydrogen production technologies , 2009 .

[64]  Jean-Paul Schwitzguébel,et al.  Hydrogen production by Clostridium thermolacticum during continuous fermentation of lactose , 2004 .

[65]  Hisatomo Fukui,et al.  Operation of a two-stage fermentation process producing hydrogen and methane from organic waste. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[66]  Shigeharu Tanisho,et al.  Continuous hydrogen production from molasses by fermentation using urethane foam as a support of flocks , 1995 .

[67]  Jean-Philippe Steyer,et al.  Hydrogen production from agricultural waste by dark fermentation: A review , 2010 .

[68]  Xiaobing Wu,et al.  Enhanced H2 gas production from bagasse using adhE inactivated Klebsiella oxytoca HP1 by sequential dark-photo fermentations. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[69]  You-Kwan Oh,et al.  Biofilm microbial community of a thermophilic trickling biofilter used for continuous biohydrogen production. , 2005, FEMS microbiology letters.

[70]  Y. Ueno,et al.  Hydrogen Production from Industrial Wastewater by Anaerobic Microflora in Chemostat Culture , 1996 .

[71]  M. Janssen,et al.  Cultivation of microalgae: effect of light/dark cycles on biomass yield , 2002 .

[72]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Characteristics of rapidly formed hydrogen‐producing granules and biofilms , 2008, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[73]  Xing Yan,et al.  Effect of key factors on hydrogen production from cellulose in a co-culture of Clostridium thermocellum and Clostridium thermopalmarium. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[74]  Z. Hu,et al.  Hydrogen Production from Rice Winery Wastewater by Using a Continuously-Stirred Reactor , 2003 .

[75]  Jo‐Shu Chang,et al.  Fermentative hydrogen production with Clostridium butyricum CGS5 isolated from anaerobic sewage sludge , 2005 .

[76]  Han-Qing Yu,et al.  Biological hydrogen production in a UASB reactor with granules. II: Reactor performance in 3‐year operation , 2006, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[77]  Duu-Jong Lee,et al.  Bioreactor and process design for biohydrogen production. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[78]  John R. Benemann,et al.  Feasibility analysis of photobiological hydrogen production , 1997 .

[79]  Patrick C. Hallenbeck,et al.  Biological hydrogen production; fundamentals and limiting processes , 2002 .

[80]  Jianlong Wang,et al.  FACTORS INFLUENCING FERMENTATIVE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION: A REVIEW , 2009 .

[81]  H. Yokoi,et al.  H2 production from starch by a mixed culture of Clostridium butyricum and Enterobacter aerogenes , 1998, Biotechnology Letters.

[82]  Hong-Wei Hou,et al.  Efficient conversion of wheat straw wastes into biohydrogen gas by cow dung compost. , 2006, Bioresource technology.

[83]  P. Schönheit,et al.  Glucose fermentation to acetate, CO2 and H2 in the anaerobic hyperthermophilic eubacterium Thermotoga maritima: involvement of the Embden-Meyerhof pathway , 1994, Archives of Microbiology.

[84]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Biohydrogen production in a granular activated carbon anaerobic fluidized bed reactor , 2007 .

[85]  Liying Xu,et al.  Biohydrogen production by Ethanoligenens harbinense B49: Nutrient optimization , 2008 .

[86]  Y. Oh,et al.  Hydrogen production and metabolic flux analysis of metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains , 2009 .

[87]  M. Karp,et al.  Hydrogen production from glycerol using halophilic fermentative bacteria. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[88]  Yuansong Wei,et al.  Enhanced biohydrogen production from sewage sludge with alkaline pretreatment. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[89]  S.J.J. Lips,et al.  Biohydrogen production from untreated and hydrolyzed potato steam peels by the extreme thermophiles Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga neapolitana , 2010 .

[90]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Redirection of biochemical pathways for the enhancement of H2 production by Enterobacter cloacae , 2001, Biotechnology Letters.

[91]  Tong Zhang,et al.  Thermophilic H2 production from a cellulose-containing wastewater , 2003, Biotechnology Letters.

[92]  P. Claassen,et al.  Pretreatment of Miscanthus for hydrogen production by Thermotoga elfii , 2002 .

[93]  Tatsuya Noike,et al.  Characteristics of hydrogen production from bean curd manufacturing waste by anaerobic microflora , 2000 .

[94]  Ahmadun Fakhru’l-Razi,et al.  Biological production of hydrogen from glucose by natural anaerobic microflora , 2004 .

[95]  Chiu-Yue Lin,et al.  Biohydrogen production using an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor , 2004 .

[96]  C. F. Forster,et al.  Increased hydrogen production by Escherichia coli strain HD701 in comparison with the wild-type parent strain MC4100 , 2003 .

[97]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Enhanced Continuous Biohydrogen Production by Immobilized Anaerobic Microflora , 2008 .

[98]  H Yokoi,et al.  Microbial hydrogen production from sweet potato starch residue. , 2001, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[99]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Continuous hydrogen production by immobilized Enterobacter cloacae IIT-BT 08 using lignocellulosic materials as solid matrices. , 2001 .

[100]  James I. Chang,et al.  Influence of chemical nature of organic wastes on their conversion to hydrogen by heat-shock digested sludge , 2003 .

[101]  Hubert Bahl,et al.  Level of enzymes involved in acetate, butyrate, acetone and butanol formation by Clostridium acetobutylicum , 1983, European journal of applied microbiology and biotechnology.

[102]  Mark A. Eiteman,et al.  Metabolic flux analysis of clostridium thermosuccinogenes , 2001 .

[103]  A. Melis,et al.  Biochemical and morphological characterization of sulfur-deprived and H2-producing Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (green alga) , 2002, Planta.

[104]  T. Fukui,et al.  Continuous hydrogen production by the hyperthermophilic archaeon, Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1. , 2005, Journal of biotechnology.

[105]  Baikun Li,et al.  Biohydrogen production from molasses by anaerobic fermentation with a pilot-scale bioreactor system , 2006 .

[106]  J. Lay,et al.  Feasibility of biological hydrogen production from organic fraction of municipal solid waste , 1999 .

[107]  Tong Zhang,et al.  Acidophilic biohydrogen production from rice slurry , 2006 .

[108]  R. Banerjee,et al.  Comparison of biohydrogen production processes , 2008 .

[109]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Rapid formation of hydrogen‐producing granules in an anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactor induced by acid incubation , 2007, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[110]  D. L. Hawkes,et al.  Continuous fermentative hydrogen production from sucrose and sugarbeet , 2005 .

[111]  S. Haruta,et al.  Microbial community in anaerobic hydrogen-producing microflora enriched from sludge compost , 2001, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[112]  J. G. Morris,et al.  Production of Solvents by Clostridium acetobutylicum Cultures Maintained at Neutral pH , 1984, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[113]  Debabrata Das,et al.  Enhancement of hydrogen production by Enterobacter cloacae IIT-BT 08. , 2000 .

[114]  Michael Seibert,et al.  Prolongation of H2 photoproduction by immobilized, sulfur-limited Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cultures. , 2008, Journal of biotechnology.

[115]  Sneha Singh,et al.  Fermentative hydrogen production by new marine Clostridium amygdalinum strain C9 isolated from offshore crude oil pipeline , 2010 .

[116]  Duu-Jong Lee,et al.  Dark fermentation on biohydrogen production: Pure culture. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[117]  T. Noike,et al.  Hydrogen fermentation of organic municipal wastes , 2000 .

[118]  Venkataramana Gadhamshetty,et al.  Fermentative biohydrogen production: Evaluation of net energy gain , 2010 .

[119]  Aijie Wang,et al.  Bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to hydrogen: Potential and challenges. , 2009, Biotechnology advances.

[120]  Rangan Banerjee,et al.  Metabolic flux analysis of biological hydrogen production by Escherichia coli , 2007 .

[121]  Sang-Eun Oh,et al.  Biological hydrogen production measured in batch anaerobic respirometers. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[122]  C. Forsberg.  Future hydrogen markets for large-scale hydrogen production systems , 2007 .

[123]  A. Melis,et al.  Green alga hydrogen production: progress, challenges and prospects , 2002 .

[124]  Pan Zhao,et al.  Hydrogen production characteristics from dark fermentation of maltose by an isolated strain F.P 01 , 2010 .

[125]  Michael Kornaros,et al.  Biohydrogen and methane production from cheese whey in a two-stage anaerobic process , 2008 .

[126]  D. L. Hawkes,et al.  Sustainable fermentative hydrogen production: challenges for process optimisation , 2002 .

[127]  G. C. Zittelli,et al.  Efficiency of sunlight utilization: tubular versus flat photobioreactors , 1998, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[128]  Hong Liu,et al.  Production of hydrogen from domestic wastewater using a bioelectrochemically assisted microbial reactor (BEAMR) , 2007 .

[129]  V C Kalia,et al.  Frementation of biowaste to H2 by Bacillus licheniformis , 1994, World journal of microbiology & biotechnology.

[130]  Hans P. Blaschek,et al.  Examination of Physiological and Molecular Factors Involved in Enhanced Solvent Production by Clostridium beijerinckii BA101 , 1999, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[131]  Yutaka Nakashimada,et al.  Enhanced hydrogen production in altered mixed acid fermentation of glucose by Enterobacter aerogenes , 1997 .

[132]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Sustainable and efficient biohydrogen production via electrohydrogenesis , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[133]  Jo-Shu Chang,et al.  H2 production with anaerobic sludge using activated-carbon supported packed-bed bioreactors , 2004, Biotechnology Letters.

[134]  You-Kwan Oh,et al.  Isolation of hydrogen-producing bacteria from granular sludge of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor , 2003 .

[135]  Debabrata Das,et al.  The Prospect of Purple Non-Sulfur (PNS) Photosynthetic Bacteria for Hydrogen Production: The Present State of the Art , 2007 .

[136]  Christopher P. Saint,et al.  Metabolic flux analysis of hydrogen production network by Clostridium butyricum W5: Effect of pH and glucose concentrations , 2010 .

[137]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Biohydrogen production with anaerobic fluidized bed reactors—A comparison of biofilm-based and granule-based systems , 2008 .

[138]  J. Lay,et al.  Biohydrogen production as a function of pH and substrate concentration. , 2001, Environmental science & technology.

[139]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Effect of hydraulic retention time on biohydrogen production and anaerobic microbial community , 2006 .

[140]  Olaf Kruse,et al.  Photosynthetic biomass and H2 production by green algae: from bioengineering to bioreactor scale-up. , 2007, Physiologia plantarum.

[141]  Masayoshi Kobayashi,et al.  Modeling of pH response in continuous anaerobic acidogenesis by an artificial neural network , 2001 .

[142]  C. Lin,et al.  Biohydrogen production by mesophilic fermentation of food wastewater. , 2004, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[143]  Jo-Shu Chang,et al.  Sequential dark–photo fermentation and autotrophic microalgal growth for high-yield and CO2-free biohydrogen production , 2010 .

[144]  Bruno Fabiano,et al.  Experimental study of hydrogen kinetics from agroindustrial by-product: Optimal conditions for production and fuel cell feeding , 1998 .

[145]  G. Reddy,et al.  Fermentative production of acetic acid from various pure and natural cellulosic materials by Clostridium lentocellum SG6 , 2000 .

[146]  Joo-Hwa Tay,et al.  Production of hydrogen in a granular sludge-based anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactor , 2007 .