Technological advancement in the production of biohydrogen from lignocellulosic biomass: A review

Abstract

This is of utmost importance to move towards green energy in order to achieve sustainability. Future energy crises might be significantly reduced by using lignocellulosic waste biomass from a variety of industrial and agro-processing sources. Of all the biofuels, biohydrogen appears to be the most promising. It may be made from lignocellulosic biomass using microbial fermentation techniques and has a high energy content. During the last decade, numerous research works on biohydrogen have been conducted to fulfill the purpose of sustainability. The present review article mainly focuses on the existing criticalities of the central dogma of biohydrogen production using waste lignocellulose biomass of different kinds. In view of that, the various pretreatment methods, the enzymatic hydrolysis, and the process of fermentation to produce biohydrogen are well comprehended and analyzed. The structural properties of biomass including the composition and porosity are comprehensively analyzed to identify the selection of raw material in biohydrogen production. Nevertheless, the formation of unwanted inhibitors in the hydrolysate obtained after biomass pretreatment typically affects the subsequent fermentation for biohydrogen production. Therefore, an emphasis is given on the nature of different kinds of inhibitors formed from a variety of pretreatment methods. The subsequent aim of this paper is to gather the latest ideas employed as emerging technologies for biohydrogen production using waste biomass. Finally, an attempt is made to conclude the paper by mentioning the technical challenges trailing by the best possible directives to follow as future recommendations. Hence, the readers of this article will be benefitted with an in-depth knowledge on the key factors that typically influence the development of a process employed for biohydrogen production in a lignocellulosic biorefinery.