Recent Developments in Biological Hydrogen Production Processes

Abstract

Biohydrogen production technology can utilize renewable energy sources like biomass for the generation of hydrogen, the cleanest form of energy for the use of mankind. However, major constraints to the commercialization of these processes include lower hydrogen yields and rates of hydrogen production. To overcome these bottlenecks intensive research work has already been carried out on the advancement of these processes such as the development of genetically modified microorganisms, the improvement of the bioreactor design, molecular engineering of the key enzyme hydrogenases, the development of two stage processes, etc. The present paper explores the recent advancements that have been made till date and also presents the state of the art in molecular strategies to improve the hydrogen production.

Keywords

• biohydrogen
• hydrogenases
• genetically engineered microorganisms
• microbial fuel cell
• two-stage process