Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Fundamentals of Hydrogen Production
via Biotechnology (Bio-H2)
Nuri Azbar
Abstract
Hydrogen is considered to be the fuel of the future due to its promising
properties in terms of sustainability. Among common hydrogen production methods
processes like thermo-chemical, physico-chemical, electro-chemical and biologi-
cal have been gaining more and more interest lately. A special term “biohydrogen”
has been coined which refers to hydrogen production by living organisms. It is
considered to be more environmentally friendly alternative since it neither requires
high temperature nor high pressure during the production, moreover it provides
eco-friendly solution to organic wastes via conversion of organics into a biofuel
which emits only water vapor when combusted. Among different technologies of
hydrogen production, bio-hydrogen production perhaps exhibits the greatest poten-
tial to replace fossil fuels. In this chapter, various hydrogen production methods
such as anaerobic dark fermentation and light-driven photo-biological processes
are discussed.
Keywords
Biohydrogen
·
Anaerobic dark fermentation
·
Light
·
Driven fermentation
·
Hydrogen economy
·
Photo
·
Fermentation
1 Introduction
The main drivers of the hydrogen economy are; ever-growing consumption of en-
ergy and decarbonisation need due to the negative environmental effects of refinery
based energy alternatives, which have negative environmental impacts related to
climate change and global warming, both threatening our existence on the planet
earth. It is estimated that over 38 Mt (5,000 petajoules), with a market value of
$ 60 billion hydrogen is produced worldwide (Levin and Azbar
2012
). Hydrogen
has been most commonly used for the purpose of processing of oil in refineries and
for the production of industrial chemicals such as ammonia and methanol. Other
uses of hydrogen are in industrial processes, chemical manufacturing, and food
preparation. The current use of hydrogen is expected to increase significantly in
