State-of-the-art technologies for continuous high-rate biohydrogen production

Abstract

Dark fermentation is a technically feasible technology for achieving carbon dioxide-free hydrogen production. This review presents the current findings on continuous hydrogen production using dark fermentation. Several operational strategies and reactor configurations have been suggested. The formation of attached mixed-culture microorganisms is a typical prerequisite for achieving high production rate, hydrogen yield, and resilience. To date, fixed-bed reactors and dynamic membrane bioreactors yielded higher biohydrogen performance than other configurations. The symbiosis between H₂-producing bacteria and biofilm-forming bacteria was essential to avoid washout and maintain the high loading rates and hydrogenic metabolic flux. Recent research has initiated a more in-depth comparison of microbial community changes during dark fermentation, primarily with computational science techniques based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing investigations. Future techno-economic analysis of dark fermentative biohydrogen production and perspectives on unraveling mitigation mechanisms induced by attached microorganisms in dark fermentation processes are further discussed.

Keywords: Biohydrogen; High-rate dark fermentation; Modern high-performance computing systems; Next-generation sequencing; Reactor configuration.