Epitomizing biohydrogen production from microbes: Critical challenges vs opportunities

Jia Min Woon; Kuan Shiong Khoo; Asla A Al-Zahrani; Meznah M Alanazi; Jun Wei Lim; Chin Kui Cheng; Nurul Tasnim Sahrin; Fatima Musa Ardo; Sun Yi-Ming; Kuen-Song Lin; John Chi-Wei Lan; Md Sohrab Hossain; Worapon Kiatkittipong

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.115780

Epitomizing biohydrogen production from microbes: Critical challenges vs opportunities

Environ Res. 2023 Jun 15:227:115780. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115780. Epub 2023 Mar 28.

Affiliations

¹ HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam, 31441, Saudi Arabia; Basic and Applied Scientific Research Center- College of Science -Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam, 31441, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia; Department of Biotechnology, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, 602105, India. Electronic address: junwei.lim@utp.edu.my.
⁶ Center for Catalysis and Separation (CeCaS), Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, P. O. Box 127788, United Arab Emirates.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science/Environmental Technology Research Center, Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li District, Taoyuan City, 32003, Taiwan; Environmental Technology Research Center, Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li District, Taoyuan City, 32003, Taiwan.
⁸ Biorefinery and Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand. Electronic address: kiatkittipong_w@su.ac.th.

PMID: 36990197
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115780

Abstract

Hydrogen is a clean and green biofuel choice for the future because it is carbon-free, non-toxic, and has high energy conversion efficiency. In exploiting hydrogen as the main energy, guidelines for implementing the hydrogen economy and roadmaps for the developments of hydrogen technology have been released by several countries. Besides, this review also unveils various hydrogen storage methods and applications of hydrogen in transportation industry. Biohydrogen productions from microbes, namely, fermentative bacteria, photosynthetic bacteria, cyanobacteria, and green microalgae, via biological metabolisms have received significant interests off late due to its sustainability and environmentally friendly potentials. Accordingly, the review is as well outlining the biohydrogen production processes by various microbes. Furthermore, several factors such as light intensity, pH, temperature and addition of supplementary nutrients to enhance the microbial biohydrogen production are highlighted at their respective optimum conditions. Despite the advantages, the amounts of biohydrogen being produced by microbes are still insufficient to be a competitive energy source in the market. In addition, several major obstacles have also directly hampered the commercialization effors of biohydrogen. Thus, this review uncovers the constraints of biohydrogen production from microbes such as microalgae and offers solutions associated with recent strategies to overcome the setbacks via genetic engineering, pretreatments of biomass, and introduction of nanoparticles as well as oxygen scavengers. The opportunities of exploiting microalgae as a suastainable source of biohydrogen production and the plausibility to produce biohydrogen from biowastes are accentuated. Lastly, this review addresses the future perspectives of biological methods to ensure the sustainability and economy viability of biohydrogen production.

Keywords: Biohydrogen; Biowaste; Commercialization; Microalgae; Microbe.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biofuels
Biomass
Cyanobacteria* / metabolism
Fermentation
Hydrogen / analysis
Hydrogen / metabolism
Microalgae*

Substances

Hydrogen
Biofuels