Biohydrogen - Advances and Processes

Biohydrogen is the cleanest biofuel. It has the highest energy content by weight and burns cleanly – generating just water. It is the best choice for fuel cells, where it generates electricity directly, in its reaction with oxygen. Biohydrogen appears naturally as part of gases from mammal digestive systems, and it can be produced in specially designed anaerobic biodigesters, or through photocatalysis with microalgae. The gas is also easy to purify and use. As a green hydrogen obtained through bioprocesses, economical biohydrogen production is full of challenges and opportunities: from efficient and fast substrate conversion to storage, transportation, and safe use, there are several aspects that must be developed. Research in this field attacks the challenge of large-scale, efficient production from several directions: substrate pretreatment to enhance digestibility, metabolic networks analysis, and microbial diversity and succession to highlight constraints in production, bioreactor, and downstream design to improve throughput and reduce costs, to cite a few. This volume presents a brief introduction to biohydrogen production, and then explores the recent advances and developments in the area, in twenty four chapters written by specialists on the matter.