ReviewRecent insights into the cell immobilization technology applied for dark fermentative hydrogen production
Introduction
The rising demand for energy production and energy consumption require scientists, engineers and a whole battery of research teams, all alike, to work out different viable schemes to produce energy with a much reduced ecological impact and carbon footprint. Subsequently, in relation to developing the hydrogen fuel research field and making the first steps in its potential development as a clean and optimized fuel economy, several green energy carriers have been studied in their performance to improve the biohydrogen production processes using different types of biomass (Algapani et al., 2016, Chandolias et al., 2016, Jariyaboon et al., 2015, Kumar et al., 2015a, Pachapur et al., 2015).
The major share of hydrogen production is currently derived from non-renewable fuel sources, principally by the conversion of methane and oil/naphtha. Consequently, cleaner techniques coupled with methods/protocols for the production of hydrogen from biomass present themselves as a more promising option, altogether. For this specific purpose, approaches and techniques which are mostly biological have been gathering research momentum and trying to emerge as green opportunities for hydrogen production. These techniques and methods are, in principle, categorized into light-dependent processes (biophotolysis of water and photo-fermentation) and light-independent ones. Dark fermentation (light-independent) is mostly preferred due to the higher production rates and maneuvering the organic fraction of biomass as feedstock (Boboescu et al., 2016, Sivagurunathan et al., 2016).
Biohydrogen production in the continuous system using suspended cells fails during the lower hydraulic retention times (HRT) due to the phenomenon of cell wash-out. In recent years, this problem had been prevailed over via various immobilization methods (Abreu et al., 2010, Frascari et al., 2013, Gomes et al., 2015, Han et al., 2015, Han et al., 2012, Lin et al., 2016, Park et al., 2015, Yokoi et al., 1997a). The development of cell immobilization technology for biohydrogen production aimed to improve the hydrogen production rate and yield, to address the key limitations associated with the suspended cells operation, and to improve the stability of continuous biohydrogen production. These include tolerance to the metabolic stress (such as pH, temperature, and organic loading rates), induced granules formation to enhance cell retention, and stable hydrogen productivity during long-term operations.
Notably the major milestones achieved in the immobilization methodologies are represented in Table 1. As it could be seen that many of the improvements have been made in the years 2003–2010. For example, Lin et al., 2009, have immobilized the sewage sludge using PVA to increase the production performance. Other important aspects and improvements are provided in Table 1. Moreover, immobilization of hydrogen producers and other important enzymes have opened the window for patents in this field. A few of the patents awarded in the immobilization field are summarized in Table 2. Some of the interesting patents include the “Artificial enzymatic pathway” for biohydrogen production by Virginia Tech. This novelty presents about, High yield water-based enzymatic process for the transformation of renewable polysaccharides to hydrogen using phosphorylases, phosphoglucomutases, hydrogenases and biocatalysts involved in the pentose-phosphate route. Similar aspects and other major outbreaks from 2010 onwards are summarized in Table 2.
The main objective of this present review is to provide the recent insights about immobilization technology in light independent (dark fermentative) hydrogen production, which includes the types of immobilization, novel carrier materials used, and the operational process parameters controlling the immobilization phenomenon. Besides, perspectives and concluding remarks have been narrated objectively in the last section with focus on the potential research and development roadmap towards a pilot scale process elaboration.
Section snippets
Types of immobilization of hydrogen-producing microorganisms
Immobilization in biohydrogen production is mainly employed in 4 ways, viz adsorption, entrapment, encapsulation and polymer based. The basic mechanism behind these methods are depicted in Fig. 1. In addition, Table 3 provides the hydrogen production performances of various immobilized consortia and their production rates and yields while the conditions are optimized.
Parameters affecting biohydrogen production performances using immobilized cells
Biohydrogen production by immobilized bacteria is influenced by various factors including the support materials chosen, method of immobilization, pH of the fermentation medium, the carbon source used, and finally the microorganism used for hydrogen production. In the following subsections, all the issues are discussed in detail to bring about successful hydrogen production.
Reactor configurations in hydrogen production with immobilized cells
Biohydrogen production using immobilized cells was achieved in a variety of bioprocesses with different reactor configurations, such as batch, fluidized bed, packed bed, continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) (Table 3). The design of bioreactors is highly dependent on the type and characteristics of the immobilized cells used. The operating mode of the biohydrogen producing bioreactors with immobilized cells are mainly batch and continuous
Conclusions
Recent attempts to enhance biohydrogen production via immobilization technology have been comprehensively reviewed. Major breakthroughs are in the development of novel cell immobilization techniques (such as silicone-based and hybrid immobilization) that significantly improved the hydrogen production rate and yield, mainly due to their ability to retain a large amount of active hydrogen-producing bacteria within the bioreactor. Yet, the choice of suitable immobilization method is highly
Acknowledgements
The financial assistance to one of the authors (GK) from Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam is highly acknowledged. This study was also financially supported by the Research Grants (MOST 105-3113-E-006-003; MOST 104-2221-E-006-227-MY3; MOST 103-2221-E-006-190-MY3) from Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology. The Top University Grants (also known as ‘5 year 50 billion’ grants) issued by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education is also gratefully acknowledged. This study was supported by the Research
References (82)
- et al.
Engineered heat treated methanogenic granules: a promising biotechnological approach for extreme thermophilic biohydrogen production
Bioresour. Technol.
(2010) - et al.
Bio-hydrolysis and bio-hydrogen production from food waste by thermophilic and hyperthermophilic anaerobic process
Bioresour. Technol.
(2016) - et al.
Immobilized biofilm used as seeding source in batch biohydrogen fermentation
Renewable Energy
(2009) - et al.
Performance evaluation and phylogenetic characterization of anaerobic fluidized bed reactors using ground tire and pet as support materials for biohydrogen production
Bioresour. Technol.
(2011) - et al.
Biohydrogen production in anaerobic fluidized bed reactors: effect of support material and hydraulic retention time
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
(2010) - et al.
The effect of the surface charge of hydrogel supports on thermophilic biohydrogen production
Bioresour. Technol.
(2010) - et al.
Investigation of the links between mass transfer conditions, dissolved hydrogen concentration and biohydrogen production by the pure strain Clostridium butyricum CWBI1009
Biochem. Eng. J.
(2015) - et al.
Surpassing the current limitations of biohydrogen production systems: the case for a novel hybrid approach
Bioresour. Technol.
(2016) - et al.
Anaerobic fluidized bed reactor with expanded clay as support for hydrogen production through dark fermentation of glucose
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
(2009) - et al.
Biohydrogen and carboxylic acids production from wheat straw hydrolysate
Bioresour. Technol.
(2016)
Biohydrogen production with fixed-bed bioreactors
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Biohydrogen production from immobilized cells and suspended sludge systems with condensed molasses fermentation solubles
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
A kinetic study of biohydrogen production from glucose, molasses and cheese whey by suspended and attached cells of Thermotoga neapolitana
Bioresour. Technol.
The application of an innovative continuous multiple tube reactor as a strategy to control the specific organic loading rate for biohydrogen production by dark fermentation
Bioresour. Technol.
Enhancement effect of hematite nanoparticles on fermentative hydrogen production
Bioresour. Technol.
Biohydrogen production from food waste hydrolysate using continuous mixed immobilized sludge reactors
Bioresour. Technol.
Fermentative hydrogen production from molasses wastewater in a continuous mixed immobilized sludge reactor
Bioresour. Technol.
Development of a compact stacked flatbed reactor with immobilized high-density bacteria for hydrogen production
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Bio-hydrogen and bio-methane potentials of skim latex serum in batch thermophilic two-stage anaerobic digestion
Bioresour. Technol.
Biological hydrogen production by immobilized cells of Clostridium tyrobutyricum JM1 isolated from a food waste treatment process
Bioresour. Technol.
Comparative analysis of thermophilic immobilized biohydrogen production using packed materials of ceramic ring and pumice stone
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Continuous biohydrogen production in immobilized biofilm system versus suspended cell culture
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Immobilization methods for continuous hydrogen gas production biofilm formation versus granulation
Process Biochem.
Selection of microorganism immobilization particle for dark fermentative biohydrogen production by repeated batch operation
Renewable Energy
Lignocellulose biohydrogen: practical challenges and recent progress
Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
HRT dependent performance and bacterial community population of granular hydrogen-producing mixed cultures fed with galactose
Bioresour. Technol.
Continuous hydrogen production by immobilized Enterobacter cloacae IIT-BT 08 using lignocellulosic materials as solid matrices
Enzyme Microb. Technol.
Electron microscopy of hydrogen producing immobilized E. cloacae IIT-BT 08 on natural polymers
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Biohydrogen production in a three-phase fluidized bed bioreactor using sewage sludge immobilized by ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer
Bioresour. Technol.
Enhanced dark hydrogen fermentation by addition of ferric oxide nanoparticles using Enterobacter aerogenes
Bioresour. Technol.
Enhanced hydrogen production in a UASB reactor by retaining microbial consortium onto carbon nanotubes (CNTs)
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Batch and continuous thermophilic hydrogen fermentation of sucrose using anaerobic sludge from palm oil mill effluent via immobilisation technique
Process Biochem.
Kinetics of nano-catalysed dark fermentative hydrogen production from distillery wastewater
Energy Proc.
Self-immobilization of acidogenic mixed consortia on mesoporous material (SBA-15) and activated carbon to enhance fermentative hydrogen production
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Microbial characterization of hydrogen-producing bacteria in fermented food waste at different pH values
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Isolation and characterization of a novel hydrogen-producing strain Clostridium sp. suitable for immobilization
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Mesophilic hydrogen production in acidogenic packed-bed reactors (APBR) using raw sugarcane vinasse as substrate: Influence of support materials
Anaerobe
Biohydrogen production by co-fermentation of crude glycerol and apple pomace hydrolysate using co-culture of Enterobacter aerogenes and Clostridium butyricum
Bioresour. Technol.
Changes in performance and bacterial communities in response to various process disturbances in a high-rate biohydrogen reactor fed with galactose
Bioresour. Technol.
Enhanced bio-hydrogen production from sugarcane juice by immobilized Clostridium butyricum on sugarcane bagasse
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Bio-hydrogen production from glycerol by immobilized Enterobacter aerogenes ATCC 13048 on heat-treated UASB granules as affected by organic loading rate
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy
Cited by (153)
Sustainable paramylon production from food waste by Euglena gracilis using a waste-based cell immobilisation technique
2024, Chemical Engineering JournalA concise review of recent biohydrogen production technologies
2024, Sustainable Energy Technologies and AssessmentsThermal effects of pretreatment of dark fermentation feedstocks in a vortex layer apparatus
2024, International Journal of Hydrogen EnergyDark fermentative hydrogen production in packed-bed bioreactor using the Persian Gulf dead coral, ceramic saddle, and ceramic ball as support matrixes
2024, International Journal of Hydrogen EnergyBiohydrogen production through dark fermentation: Recent trends and advances in transition to a circular bioeconomy
2024, International Journal of Hydrogen EnergyBiochar enhances microbial degradation of phenol in water: Response surface optimization
2024, Biochemical Engineering Journal