Biohydrogen

Chronology of fuel usage by mankind

 Why using hydrogen?

 Highest energy content per unit weight among the

known gaseous fuels (143 GJ ton−1)
 Carbon-free fuel which ultimately oxidizes to water as
a combustion product
 Renewable energy
 No greenhouse gas emission
 No environmental pollution
 Wide variety of applications (i.e. fuel cell)
 Hydrogen Production

 Electrolysis of water
 Thermocatalytic reformation (i.e. steam reformation
of methane)
 Biological processes :
 Direct biophotolysis
 Indirect biophotolysis Light Dependent Process
 Photo-fermentations
 Dark-fermentation Light Independent Process
Biohydrogen Production
 Direct Biophotolysis

Light energy
 General reaction : 2H2O 2H2 + O2
 Photosynthetic production of hydrogen from water
(using light irradiation)
 Energy conversion efficiency is quite low (<1%)
 Indirect Biophotolysis

Light energy
 Reaction : 12H2O + 6CO2 C6H12O6 + 6O2
Light energy
C6H12O6 + 12H2O 12H2 + 6CO2
 Using cyanobacteria, posses several enzymes directly
involved in hydrogen metabolism and synthesis of
molecular H2 (nitrogenase and hydrogenase)
 Photo Fermentation

Light energy
 C6H12O6 + 12H2O 12H2 + 6CO2
 Using Photoheterotrophic bacteria
 It can convert light energy into H2 using waste
organic compounds as substrate
Comparison Process
Hydrogen production by various
microorganisms
 Immobilized-cell systems
 more efficient in solid/liquid separation
 without encountering washout of cells.
 and can be operated at high dilution rates
(or low retention times)
 found that immobilized-cell systems were suitable
 for continuous hydrogen fermentation with pure cultures
 (such as Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Enterobacter cloacae,
Enterobacter aerogenes)
 The fixed-bed reactors containing the biomass-loaded
 matrices were operated at different hydraulic
retention times (HRTs) to evaluate their performance
in hydrogen production.
operations of fixed-bed bioreactors
for hydrogen production
Material :
-seed sludge
-20 g COD/l of
sucrose
-packed
materials
Procedures for cell cultivation and
immobilization in
fixed beds
Medium was circulated
The
through the fixed-bed
cultivation
columns at a HRT of
cycles were
0.4–0:5 h
repeated two
to four times

Circulation of
medium was
old medium was
terminated when
replaced by a
biogas
fresh one
production had
ceased