Biohydrogen

Hydrogen has emerged as a promising alternative fuel since it can be derived from a renewable energy sources and used in fuel cells with high efficiency. It appears as the most promising alternative to fossil fuels. To make hydrogen economy sustainable, it is indispensable to use renewable resources instead of fossil fuels for hydrogen production. In particular, biological conversion of water or biodegradable organic wastes into hydrogen is an environmentally friendly and efficient way of hydrogen production. Among the various biological processes known to produce biohydrogen, dark fermentation process has the dual advantages of gaseous energy generation and treatment of organic wastes. However, commercialization of the process depends on advances in bioprocess design and optimization along with an understanding of the nature of biohydrogen producing microbial communities and their improvement. The present paper highlights the major factors involved towards the improvement biohydrogen production processes. Environmental impact of hydrogen as carbon neutral energy carrier is also discussed. This also includes a technical and economic analysis of the biohydrogen and its role in the proposed hydrogen economy coupled with fuel cell and in transport application. Technological advancements based on hydrogen based fuel cell designs and integrated systems based on process economy are also discussed.