Biohydrogen Research Research Articles

Current trends on the advancement and limitation of biohydrogen research: An exclusive overview

AbstractHydrogen is believed to be the most potential energy‐resources in the coming time due to its high energy density and zero greenhouse gas footprint. Among all types of hydrogen production processes, bio‐based hydrogen (biohydrogen) generation processes are found to be relatively cleaner than the other processes. In this review article current biohydrogen generation processes are critically reviewed to understand the critical factors associated with the hydrogen generation along with the challenges to be eliminated. In this review the factor like types of substrates, their pretreatment, bioreactor design, and other parametric influences on the overall biohydrogen production is discussed. Also, impact of different catalyst in hydrogen production has been discussed in this topic. The review indicated that most of the current hydrogen‐research are focused on the development of processes with high yield. However, one of the major drawbacks of biohydrogen process is purification of H2 from the gaseous mixture produced by microbial strains. To establish the biohydrogen production processes as promising as it considered to be there needs to have a robust purification system. Also, this review highlights that more rigorous research on the biohydrogen storage and its hazard analysis is necessary to meet the future expectation of hydrogen use in mass‐scale.

Exploring the potential of biohydrogen as a sustainable energy solution for Pakistan: A review of production processes and policy challenges

Due to growing carbon dioxide emissions and the depletion of fossil-based energy sources, international studies have been focusing more intensely on developing hydrogen as a source of renewable energy. Biohydrogen is an exciting and green alternative energy source with various different benefits. Unlike traditional energy sources, biohydrogen production does not emit pollutants, making it a more environmentally friendly option. Biohydrogen generation, particularly from microalgae and other low-cost biomass feedstocks, so offers the dual benefit of delivering clean electricity while absorbing Carbon Dioxide. This research investigates the possibility of biohydrogen as a sustainable energy solution for Pakistan's climate issue. We examine the current state of biohydrogen generation technologies, such as dark fermentation, photo fermentation, bio photolysis, with a focus on their potential application in Pakistan. The study investigates global advances in biohydrogen research and their significance in Pakistan, demonstrating biohydrogen's potential contribution to Pakistan's energy independence and environmental targets, as well as the practical and policy-related challenges that must be addressed to advance biohydrogen energy generation and wider adoption.

Aerobic H2 production related to formate metabolism in white-rot fungi.

Biohydrogen is mainly produced by anaerobic bacteria, anaerobic fungi, and algae under anaerobic conditions. In higher eukaryotes, it is thought that molecular hydrogen (H2) functions as a signaling molecule for physiological processes such as stress responses. Here, it is demonstrated that white-rot fungi produce H2 during wood decay. The white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor produces H2 from wood under aerobic conditions, and H2 production is completely suppressed under hypoxic conditions. Additionally, oxalate and formate supplementation of the wood culture increased the level of H2 evolution. RNA-seq analyses revealed that T. versicolor oxalate production from the TCA/glyoxylate cycle was down-regulated, and conversely, genes encoding oxalate and formate metabolism enzymes were up-regulated. Although the involvement in H2 production of a gene annotated as an iron hydrogenase was uncertain, the results of organic acid supplementation, gene expression, and self-recombination experiments strongly suggest that formate metabolism plays a role in the mechanism of H2 production by this fungus. It is expected that this novel finding of aerobic H2 production from wood biomass by a white-rot fungus will open new fields in biohydrogen research.

Zero Energy Building Approach in Design of Biohydrogen Research Centre

The utilisation of natural energy not only can reduce energy consumption in buildings but also can lower carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuel energy for building services. It is believed that with appropriate design and a good attitude of building users, the role of renewable energy in reducing carbon emissions will be maximised. This study proposed the implementation of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) concept in the initial stage of building design by considering buildings’ form and façade design in relation to daylighting, natural ventilation and thermal design of buildings, and photovoltaic placement to save energy and to produce electrical energy in the designed building. In this study, ZEB Concept is treated as a secondary consideration in producing the architectural design for Biohydrogen Research Centre. The primary design generator is based on the philosophy of chemical bonds form representing biohydrogen chemical bonds. For a successful implementation of the ZEB concept in the Biohydrogen Research Centre design, both active and passive means are utilised in the building design. For passive means, daylighting and natural ventilation strategies were applied. While for active means, photovoltaic panels were employed as the primary electrical energy generation. Energy demand scenarios were predicted and calculated by the amount of energy used for lighting, air conditioning, and other appliances in the building. The total area needed for photovoltaic installation was obtained by balancing the energy demand prediction with the expected energy generation. The resulting design showed a promising outcome where the building is expected to achieve surplus energy with a total of 845,595.5 kWh electricity per year.

Analysis of Palu City’s Readiness Level Assessment Towards Adipura (case study: Siranindi Village)

The utilisation of natural energy not only can reduce energy consumption in buildings but also can lower carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuel energy for building services. It is believed that with appropriate design and a good attitude of building users, the role of renewable energy in reducing carbon emissions will be maximised. This study proposed the implementation of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) concept in the initial stage of building design by considering buildings’ form and façade design in relation to daylighting, natural ventilation and thermal design of buildings, and photovoltaic placement to save energy and to produce electrical energy in the designed building. In this study, ZEB Concept is treated as a secondary consideration in producing the architectural design for Biohydrogen Research Centre. The primary design generator is based on the philosophy of chemical bonds form representing biohydrogen chemical bonds. For a successful implementation of the ZEB concept in the Biohydrogen Research Centre design, both active and passive means are utilised in the building design. For passive means, daylighting and natural ventilation strategies were applied. While for active means, photovoltaic panels were employed as the primary electrical energy generation. Energy demand scenarios were predicted and calculated by the amount of energy used for lighting, air conditioning, and other appliances in the building. The total area needed for photovoltaic installation was obtained by balancing the energy demand prediction with the expected energy generation. The resulting design showed a promising outcome where the building is expected to achieve surplus energy with a total of 845,595.5 kWh electricity per year.

Biohydrogen production from wood dust mahogany (Swietenia mahagony) by dark fermentation using Enterobacter aerogenes: Effect of ozone pretreatment time and pH

As a results of the large-scale exploitation of fossil energy, the availability of non-renewable energy sources as the main energy source has decreased dramatically in the last two decades. Biomass is a versatile renewable energy source. Wood dust mahogany is an agricultural waste and one of the most commonly found biomass in Indonesia that can be converted into biohydrogen by dark fermentation. Biohydrogen is one of the alternative energy sources that is claimed to be the cleanest and environmentally friendly. However, the lignin content causes the hydrolysis process and biohydrogen production run slowly. Therefore, ozone pretreatment is necessary to degrade lignin. The advantage of ozonation pretreatment is the reactivity of ozone and does not produce by-products. In this biohydrogen research the effect of pH and ozonation pretreatment time on characteristics of wood dust mahogany, biohydrogen formation rate and its kinetic will be studied. This research was conducted in 3 stages consisting of preparation stage, ozone pretreatment stage and biohydrogen fermentation stage. The variations of the ozone pretreatment observed factor are 3, 7, 11 for pH and 15, 45 min for ozonation time. Biohydrogen fermentation using Enterobacter aerogenes for 26 h will be the last stage. The biohydrogen gas was analyzed using water displacement method for its volumetric measurement every 2 h and used for kinetic study of biohydrogen production using modified Gompertz model. The results of experiment demonstrates that ozone pretreatment leaded to wood dust mahogany surface structure change and has a positive impact on increasing the rate of biohydrogen formation. Meanwhile, the best ozone pretreatment pH was at alkaline environment (pH 11). Ozone pretreatment gives a significant impact compared to biohydrogen production accumulation without pretreatment. It can increase the production until 68%. If we compare to the other pretreatment methods, biohydrogen production from lignocellulosic substrate with ozone pretreatment produce greater results up to 86.9%. The kinetic results using modified Gompertz model could be well fitted (R2 0.981–0.995) to the experimental results.

A Road Map on Biohydrogen Production from Organic Wastes

Fossil fuels play important role in the economy of industrialized countries of the world. However, these sources of energy are not renewable and nearing the brink of extinction. Moreover, the reliance on these fuels has led to increased levels of pollution which have caused serious adverse impacts on the environment. Hydrogen has emerged as a promising alternative since it does not produce CO2 and also has the highest calorific value. The biological H2 production has an edge over its chemical counterpart mainly because it is environmentally benign. However, the major challenge limiting the transition from an oil based economy to that of biohydrogen is the low hydrogen production rate, yield and economy of the process. Biohydrogen production by dark fermentation is found most promising as compared to other biohydrogen production processes like photo fermentation process using photofermentative bacteria, microalgae, microbial fuel cell etc. Present research group has been involved in biohydrogen research for last two decades. Suitability of different organic wastes for the hydrogen production has been developed. Both pure microbial cultures and acidogenic cultures obtained from anaerobic digester are found suitable for the hydrogen production. One 10,000 L pilot plant studies are carried out for the commercial exploitation of the process. The spent medium of the dark fermentation process mostly comprises of acetic acid, butyric acid etc., which are the substrates for the biomethanation process for the generation of methane and carbon dioxide. So, maximization of gaseous energy is possible dark fermentation followed by methanation process which is known as biohythane process.

Trends in biohydrogen production: major challenges and state-of-the-art developments

Hydrogen has shown enormous potential to be an alternative fuel of the future. Hydrogen production technology has gained much attention in the last few decades due to advantages such as its high conversion efficiency, recyclability and non-polluting nature. Over the last few decades, biological hydrogen production has shown great promise for generating large scale sustainable energy to meet ever increasing global energy demands. Various microorganisms, namely bacteria, cyanobacteria, and algae which are capable of producing hydrogen from water, solar energy, and a variety of organic substrates, are explored and studied in detail. Current biohydrogen production technologies, however, face two major challenges such as low-yield and high production cost. Advances have been made in recent years in biohydrogen research to improve the hydrogen yield through process modifications, physiological manipulations, through metabolic and genetic engineering. Recently, cell immobilization such as microbes trapping with nanoparticles within the bioreactor has shown an increase in hydrogen production. This review critically evaluated various biological hydrogen production technologies, key challenges, and recent advancements in biohydrogen research and development.

Biohydrogen production: Current perspectives and the way forward

Global research is moving forward in developing biological production of hydrogen (biohydrogen) as a renewable energy source to alleviate stresses due to carbon dioxide emissions and depleting fossil fuels resource. Biohydrogen has the potential to replace current hydrogen production technologies relying heavily on fossil fuels through electricity generation. While biohydrogen research is still immature, extensive work on laboratory- and pilot-scale systems with promising prospects has been reported. This work presents a review of advances in biohydrogen production focusing on production pathways, microbiology, as well as bioreactor configuration and operation. Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are also outlined.

Pilot-scale hydrogen fermentation system start-up performance

A high-rate hydrogen production process able to produce H 2 at a maximum rate of 15 L/L/h was successfully developed by the Feng Chia University (FCU) biohydrogen research team. This highly efficient hydrogen fermentation system includes a 400 L pilot-scale system constructed for determining scale-up operation parameters for commercializing the bioH 2 production technology. The pilot-scale system is composed of a feedstock tank, mixing system, fermentor, gas/liquid separator and automatic control system. The fermentor is fed with sucrose (20 g COD/L) and operated at 35 °C. A batch strategy is used for system start-up. The fermentor was first operated in a batch mode for two days and then switched to a continuous-feeding mode (HRT 12 h) for one month. During the continuous operation, pH notably affected H 2 production efficiency and bacterial community. For the first 14-day operation, the H 2 production rate increased from 0.017 to 0.256 L/L/h with a pH variation from 5.0 to 7.0. The DGGE results indicate the presence of two Clostridium species (namely, Clostridium butyricum and Clostridium pasteurianum) in the fermenter. Stable hydrogen production rate was obtained at pH 5.5–6.0 when C. pasteurianum became dominant in the mixed culture.

Quantitative Overview of N2 Fixation in Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 through Cellular Enrichments and iTRAQ Shotgun Proteomics

Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 is a photoautotrophic cyanobacterium with the capacity to fix atmospheric N 2. Its ability to mediate this process is similar to that described for Nostoc sp. PCC 7120, where vegetative cells differentiate into heterocysts. Quantitative proteomic investigations at both the filament level and the heterocyst level are presented using isobaric tagging technology (iTRAQ), with 721 proteins at the 95% confidence interval quantified across both studies. Observations from both experiments yielded findings confirmatory of both transcriptional studies, and published Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 iTRAQ data. N. punctiforme exhibits similar metabolic trends, though changes in a number of metabolic pathways are less pronounced than in Nostoc sp. PCC 7120. Results also suggest a number of proteins that may benefit from future investigations. These include ATP dependent Zn-proteases, N-reserve degraders and also redox balance proteins. Complementary proteomic data sets from both organisms present key precursor knowledge that is important for future cyanobacterial biohydrogen research.

Recent advances in biohydrogen research

A fundamental and principal difficulty of the future energy supply is that the formation of fossil fuels is much slower than the rate of their exploitation. Therefore the reserves which can be recovered in an energetically feasible manner are shrinking parallel with an increasing world-wide energy demand. Among the alternative energy carriers, hydrogen is preferred because it is easy to transport and store and it burns to environmentally friendly water vapour when utilized. Hydrogen can be produced in biological systems, however, our understanding of the molecular details is just emerging.

Recent advances in biohydrogen research.

A fundamental and principal difficulty of the future energy supply is that the formation of fossil fuels is much slower than the rate of their exploitation. Therefore the reserves which can be recovered in an energetically feasible manner are shrinking parallel with an increasing world-wide energy demand. Among the alternative energy carriers, hydrogen is preferred because it is easy to transport and store and it burns to environmentally friendly water vapour when utilized. Hydrogen can be produced in biological systems, however, our understanding of the molecular details is just emerging.