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Biohydrogen Production: Integrated Approaches to Improve the Process Efficiency

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Microbial Applications Vol.1

Abstract

In recent years, hydrogen (H2) has emerged as a clean and attractive substitute fuel since it can be produced from renewable energy sources. Upon combustion of hydrogen, it generates only water as a major by-product. In hydrogen and fuel cell technology, hydrogen can be applied in fuel cell technology; it produces only water as a major by-product with high energy yield, hold great potential for meeting in a quite unique way by empowering the so-called hydrogen-based economy. To make hydrogen-based economy viable, it is crucial to use renewable resources in place of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen. In this direction, by considering attractive and renewable characteristics of hydrogen led us to improve a variety of biological processes for the production of hydrogen. Nonetheless, commercialization of the biological process depends on improvements in process design along with an understanding of the nature of hydrogen producing communities and process optimization. Thus, this chapter highlights the major factors involved towards the improvement of biohydrogen production processes. Environmental impact of hydrogen as carbon-neutral energy carrier is also discussed. This also includes a technical and economic analysis of the biohydrogen and its role in the proposed hydrogen economy coupled with fuel cell and in transport application. Technological advancements based on hydrogen-based fuel cell designs and process integration approaches are also discussed.

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Kuppam, C., Pandit, S., Kadier, A., Dasagrandhi, C., Velpuri, J. (2017). Biohydrogen Production: Integrated Approaches to Improve the Process Efficiency. In: Kalia, V., Kumar, P. (eds) Microbial Applications Vol.1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52666-9_9

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