Process Design for Biohydrogen Production from Waste Materials and Its Application

Abstract

Biohydrogen is regarded as an attractive future clean energy carrier due to its high energy content and environmentally friendly conversion. Biohydrogen reactor is widely used in studies concerning the anaerobic co-digestion of food waste, sewage sludge, wastewater and other organic solids. Anaerobic digestion is a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material (biomass or waste feedstock) in the absence of oxygen to produce biogas, which may generate electricity and heat, or can be processed into renewable natural gas and transportation fuels. This review article explains the scientific processes of anaerobic digestion process such as hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and hydrogenesis as well as methods to produce biohydrogen gas such as fermentation and biophotolysis for the waste management technology and sources of renewable energy and concludes with solutions that may allow anaerobic digestion to become more widely adopted throughout the developing countries to control the waste management system.