Biohydrogen Production Methods

BT8017 BIOFUEL

UNIT 4 BIOMETHANE AND BIOHYDROGEN

 What is a hydrogen?
Hydrogen is a chemical element with symbol H and
atomic number 1. With an atomic weight of 1.00794 u
hydrogen is the lightest element and its monatomic form
(H1) is the most abundant chemical substance,
constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's baryonic
mass. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is
a colorless, odorless , tasteless, non-toxic, non metallic,
highly combustible diatomic gas with the molecular
formula H2.
 INTRODUCTION
The world is turning to a search for clean energy
sources to mitigate coming climate change and the
impending shortage of readily available fuel to
provide the energy necessary for present and
projected human activities. A variety of possible
fuel sources are being examined at present. Among
this, many have proposed using hydrogen as an
energy carrier in a future hydrogen economy.
However, a sustainable, renewable supply of
hydrogen to power this economy is required.
METHODS OF BIOLOGICAL
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
 Light-driven bio hydrogen production
 Dark fermentative bio hydrogen production
 LIGHT-DRIVEN BIO
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
The usage of biological systems to react with solar
energy and convert it to energy in the form of
hydrogen is Light-driven bio hydrogen production.
The two different types of Light-driven bio
hydrogen production are
• biophotolysis using plant-type photosynthesis
• photofermentation using bacterial photosynthesis
 BIOPHOTOLYSIS
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
• The power of photosynthesis to capture sunlight and split
water, a process that is called biophotolysis
• The natural capacity of microbial photosynthesis, either
microalgal or cyanobacterial, is used to capture solar
energy and split water.
• Highly reducing electrons produced by photosystem it can
be used to reduce a ferredoxin that can drive hydrogen
evolution by a hydrogenase enzyme.
• In this method clean water is not required, in fact some
types of wastewater would be preferred.
• Hydrogen production rate is 2.5–13%
 GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR
IMPROVEMENT OF
PHOTOSYNTHETIC EFFICIENCIES
• Photosynthetic efficiency is the quantum requirement for
improvement of hydrogen production.
• The two main present targets for improvement hydrogen
production are
1. Increasing the total spectrum that is captured
2. Increasing the quantity of light that is captured and
productively used at high light intensities.
STRATEGIES FOR INCREASED
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION IN
THE PRESENCE OF OXYGEN
The hydrogen present in green algae, like all
other known as hydrogenases, it is extremely
sensitive to oxygen, undergoing irreversible
inactivation in the present of even small
amounts of oxygen. Creating an oxygen
tolerant hydrogenase would go a long way to
making biophotolysis a practical method of
hydrogen production.
ADVANTAGES:-
• Abundant, inexhaustible substrate (water).
• Totally carbon independent pathway.
• Simple products, hydrogen and oxygen.
DISADVANTAGES:-
• Evolves oxygen, destroying the hydrogen evolving
catalyst.
• Low photosynthetic conversion efficiencies.
• Potentially explosive gas mixtures formed.
• Large surface areas required.
FUTURE PROSPECTS:-
• Near term incremental improvements possible through
creation of antenna mutants.
• Immobilization might bring some improvement.
 BACTERIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS
PHOTOFERMENTATION
• In biological hydrogen production due to their ability to
capture solar energy and carry out the conversion of
substrates to hydrogen for which this would not be
possible without an additional energy inputs.
• In addition, they are being investigated as part of two-
stage systems for deriving additional hydrogen from the
effluents of dark, hydrogen producing bioreactors.
• In the above case, hydrogen evolution is catalyzed by the
ATP-requiring nitrogenase enzyme, capable of reducing
protons to hydrogen in the absence of other substrates is
known as PHOTOFERMENTATION
 STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING
PHOTOFERMENTATION
1. A reduced pigment mutant of Rhodobacter sphaeroides
was reported to give higher hydrogen production, but only
at low (10 W/m2) light intensities.
2. The difference at a higher light intensity (100 W/m2) was
quite small, difficult to explain since mutants with less
antenna pigment would be expected to greatly
outperform the wild-type under these conditions.
3. In principle, of this suppressing metabolic reactions that
divert electron flow away from nitrogenase should
increase hydrogen yields in photofermentation.
ADVANATGES:-
• Uses readily available waste streams.
• Nearly complete substrate conversion.
DIS ADVANATGES:-
• Low volumetric rates of production.
• Low efficiency hydrogen production by nitrogenase.
FUTURE PROSPECTS:-
• Strain improvement through metabolic engineering
replacement of N2 with H2.
• Near term improvement possible through creation of
antenna mutants.
 DARK FERMENTATIVE
BIOHYDROGEN PRODUCTION
• The limitations of the natural metabolic process available for
hydrogen production in fermentation is shown in bellowed figure.
• Even though there is some diversity in pathways and various
hydrogen evolving hydrogenases is available.
• The major problem with existing pathways is that only one-third of
the substrate can be used for hydrogen production, with the
remaining twothirds (acetyl-CoA) forming another fermentation
product as acetate, butyrate, butanol, acetone, etc.
• In terms of the growth and survival of the organism this makes sense
because formation of some other products as e.g. acetate, allows ATP
formation while formation of other, reduced products allows the
oxidation of NADH, necessary to maintain redox balance in the
fermentation.
HYDROGEN PRODUCING FERMENTATION PATHWAYS
• As in many other fermentations, glucose is broken down to pyruvate, generating
ATP and NADH.
• Pyruvate is then converted to acetyl-CoA, and depending upon the organism, either
formate, through the PFL pathway, or reduced ferredoxin and CO2, through the
PFOR pathway.
• Formate can be converted to hydrogen and CO2, by either the formate hydrogen
lyase pathway which contains a [NiFe], or possibly in some other organisms another
pathway which contains a formate dependent [FeFe] hydrogenase.
• NADH, generated during glycolysis, is oxidized through the production of various
reduced carbon compounds, typically ethanol.
• A variety of [FeFe] hydrogenases can be used to reoxidize ferredoxin and produce
hydrogen, including; a ferredoxin-dependent H2ase (Fd-[FeFe]).
• In some cases, NADH can also be used in hydrogen production, either by reducing
ferredoxin (NFOR), by directly reducing H2ase (NADH-[FeFe]), or as a co-
substrate with reduced ferredoxin (Fd-NADH-[FeFe]).
• Excess NADH is used to produce other reduced fermentation products. In both
cases, acetyl-CoA can also be used to produce ATP.
ADVANTAGES;-
• Can use a variety of waste streams.
• Simple reactor technology, nonsterile conditions
acceptable.
DISADVANTAGES:-
• Large amount of byproducts are required.
• Reactor to reactor variation.
• Low COD removal.
FUTURE PROSPECTS:-
• Two stage systems can extract additional energy,
decrease COD.
 CONCLUSION
A variety of microbial paths to renewable hydrogen
production are available and are under active study.
Although a number of advances have been made
recently, there are a number of technical challenges in
each area that must be overcome before these
technologies can be adopted on a practical large scale.
Extensive R&D in this area is underway worldwide, but
practical development of biohydrogen production is a
long term prospect, commensurate with the time frame
required to adopt hydrogen as a major fuel source.