Elsevier

Bioresource Technology

Volume 102, Issue 18, September 2011, Pages 8524-8533
Bioresource Technology

Bioreactor and process design for biohydrogen production

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2011.04.055Get rights and content

Abstract

Biohydrogen is regarded as an attractive future clean energy carrier due to its high energy content and environmental-friendly conversion. It has the potential for renewable biofuel to replace current hydrogen production which rely heavily on fossil fuels. While biohydrogen production is still in the early stage of development, there have been a variety of laboratory- and pilot-scale systems developed with promising potential. This work presents a review of advances in bioreactor and bioprocess design for biohydrogen production. The state-of-the art of biohydrogen production is discussed emphasizing on production pathways, factors affecting biohydrogen production, as well as bioreactor configuration and operation. Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are also outlined.

Highlights

► We presents a review of advances in bioreactor and bioprocess design for biohydrogen production. ► We discussed the production pathways, factors affecting biohydrogen production, and bioreactor configuration and operation. ► Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are outlined.

Introduction

There have been growing concerns of greenhouse gas emissions and other pressing environmental issues over the use of fossil fuels. Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to conventional fossil fuels because it has the potential to eradicate all the environmental problems that the fossil fuels would create. Many scientists perceive hydrogen gas as the future fuel because of its non-polluting features and its use in highly efficient fuel cells for electricity. However, a major doubt over the use of hydrogen as a clean energy alternative is the way it is produced. The current hydrogen gas production is unfriendly as it is being generated from fossil fuels through thermo-chemical processes, such as hydrocarbon reforming, coal gasification and partial oxidation of heavier hydrocarbons.

Biohydrogen production by microorganisms has attracted increasing global attention, owing to its potential for inexhaustible, low-cost and renewable source of clean energy. Studies on biohydrogen production have been focusing on biophotolysis of water using algae and cyanobacteria, photo-decomposition of organic compounds by photosynthetic bacteria, and dark fermentation from organic compounds with anaerobes. Anaerobic hydrogen fermentation appears to be most favorable since hydrogen could be generated at higher rates. Moreover, the process can be carried out on various organic wastes and wastewaters enriched with carbohydrates, thereby achieving sustainable low cost biohydrogen production with concomitant waste purification.

While attractive features of biohydrogen production have been demonstrated in laboratory studies, the technology is yet to compete with commercial hydrogen production processes from fossil fuels in terms of cost, efficiency and reliability (Lee et al., 2010). Thus, improving the efficiency of biohydrogen production poses a major challenge to many researchers. This review provides an overview of the state-of-the-art and perspectives of biohydrogen production research. The review focuses on biohydrogen production pathways, major factors affecting biohydrogen production, as well as bioreactor configuration and operation. Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are also outlined.

Section snippets

Hydrogen production pathways

Biohydrogen can be generated via different pathways which can be broadly categorized into two distinct groups, viz. light-dependent and dark fermentative processes. Light-depended processes include photolysis and photo-fermentation, whereas dark fermentation is the major light independent process.

Factors affecting biohydrogen production

Inevitably, performance of hydrogen-producing bioreactor systems and operation are dictated by various factors. Factors associated with environmental conditions, process operating conditions, and chemical conditions are reviewed in this section.

Photo-bioreactors

Design of a photo-bioreactor depends on microbiological processes associated with microalgae, diatoms or cyanobacteria. While these photo-heterotrophic bacteria differ in photochemical efficiency, absorption coefficient and size, the light regime including light and dark cycles is assumed to be much more determining than biological factors (Akkerman et al., 2003). Hence the productivity of a photo-bioreactor is light-dependent, and a large surface to volume ratio is a prerequisite for a

Challenges and prospects

The relatively low hydrogen yield and production rate are two common challenges for the biological hydrogen-producing systems. Enhancement in hydrogen yield may be possible by using suitable microbial strain, process modification, efficient bioreactor design and also genetic and molecular engineering technique, to redirect metabolic pathway. Some integrated strategies are now being developed such as the two-step fermentation process (acidogenic + photobiological or acidogenic + methanogenic

Conclusions

Extensive research in the past two decades have reviewed promising prospect of biohydrogen production. There have been substantial improvement and development in both the yield and volumetric production rates of hydrogen fermentations. For realistic applications that make economic sense, hydrogen yields and production rates must at least surpass considerably the present achievements. Technological breakthrough must be sought after to extract most of hydrogen from substrate, if not all.

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