Biohydrogen as a sustainable energy carrier: Recent advances, challenges, and future prospects
Ashish Goyal, Pradeep Kumar Meena, Sagar Shelare, Chandrika S Wagle
Abstract
The global energy system remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels, leading to significant environmental consequences, mainly due to carbon dioxide emissions contributing to global warming. Addressing these ecological challenges necessitates a transition toward renewable energy sources. Biohydrogen has emerged as a promising and environmentally sustainable alternative, offering a cleaner energy solution without harmful emissions. Unlike conventional energy sources, biohydrogen production utilizes biological processes, including microbial fermentation and photobiological methods, enabling production under light and dark conditions. This review provides a comprehensive and novel perspective by critically analyzing recent advancements in biohydrogen production techniques, efficiency enhancement strategies, and large-scale implementation challenges. Unlike previous reviews, this study uniquely focuses on bridging the gap between laboratory-scale research and practical industrial applications while evaluating biohydrogen integration’s economic feasibility and sustainability in the global energy framework. Furthermore, the paper identifies key bottlenecks in current technologies and explores innovative approaches to overcoming them. This study underscores biohydrogen’s potential as a vital component of next-generation renewable energy systems by offering a distinctive synthesis of recent breakthroughs, challenges, and future directions.