In recent years, the production of hydrogen through dark fermentation has become increasingly popular because it is a sustainable approach to produce clean energy. Thus, an evaluation of studies reported on hydrogen production from different complex wastewaters will be of immense importance in economizing production technologies. This work presents a review of the advances in the bioreactor and bioprocess design for biohydrogen production from different complex wastewaters. The biohydrogen production is discussed emphasizing the production metabolic pathways, bioreactor configuration and operation, organic loading rate (OLR), pretreatment of wastewater, as well as microbial diversity. Also, in this review, various bioreactor configurations and performance parameters including H2 yield (HY) and hydrogen production rate (HPR) are evaluated and presented. The work concludes with challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production and claims for more systematic and comprehensive studies on the subject.
Part of the book: Frontiers in Bioenergy and Biofuels
The production of hydrogen in an anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR) was evaluated under different organic loading rates (OLRs) with the addition of 1 g L−1 sodium bicarbonate for pH control. Expanded clay was used as the support material for microbial attachment. Two AFBRs were operated with glucose concentrations of 10 and 25 g L−1 and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) decreasing from 8 to 1 h at a controlled temperature of 30°C. A linear correlation was observed between the hydrogen production rate (HPR) and the OLR, except for the reactor operated with 25 g L−1 glucose. The maximum HPR of 1.58 L h−1 L−1 was obtained with an HRT of 1 h, and the maximum H2 yield of 1.32 mol H2 mol−1 glucose was obtained with an HRT of 2 h, in the reactor operated with 10 g L−1 glucose.
Part of the book: Biological Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery