Energy recovery through biohydrogen production for sustainable anaerobic waste treatment: an overview

Abstract

The paper is a comprehensive review of the literature for the last five years to provide the current status of H 2 production through anaerobic digestion of industrial waste. Hydrogen production through dark fermentation is still far from industrial application. More research is needed to overcome the metabolic limitation and increase H 2 yield, rate, and substrate-to-H 2 conversion efficiency in a stable process. Generally, studies on effects of culture pretreatment are contradictory and lacked energy and cost analysis in their evaluation. More studies are expected to appear on two-stage and integrative systems of various H 2 and other biofuels or value-added chemicals bioprocesses. Metabolic modelling, metabolic engineering, and molecular biology aspects of the microbial community are the current research areas for H 2 production through dark fermentation and a coordinative research agenda is required to integrate them into a goal-directed plan. Investment and funding of research are the major drives needed to achieve a milestone.