Decarbonization of Biomass Feedstocks with Green Hydrogen Production: Important with Processes and End-Products
Udaypal Udaypal, Rahul Kumar Goswami, Pradeep Verma
Abstract
Expansion of the world population and industrialization subsequently increase the global energy demand. Non-renewable energy sources are present in limited amounts, and they are unable to fulfill rising energy demand. Besides that, the burning of fossil fuels generates a huge amount of greenhouse gases which is a major environmental concern at present. Therefore, there is a rising interest in finding an energy source that can meet present and future energy demands having net-zero greenhouse gas emission. Hydrogen is often advertised as a future substitute for fossil fuels. Hydrogen has high energy, easy storage, simple production, and environment-friendly nature as compared to other renewable energy sources. Hydrogen can be produced by different physical, chemical, and biological methods. Among these, the biological method is considered clean and renewable. Biohydrogen can be produced via different microorganisms such as photosynthetic microalgae, cyanobacteria, and bacteria through their normal metabolic process or fermentation. Microalgae could be a sustainable, economical approach to achieve a higher biohydrogen yield. This book chapter summarizes various methods of microalgal biohydrogen production, highlights factors affecting its productivity and key strategies to enhance its productivity, and also emphasizes the economic assessment of microalgal biohydrogen production with present challenges.