Sustainability of biohydrogen as fuel: Present scenario and future perspective

Abstract

Depleting fuel resources and global warming potential of fossil fuel raise a concern over its sustainability. Among the four strategically important alternative fuel sources viz. biofuels, hydrogen (H2), natural gas and syngas (synthesis gas), hydrogen emerges as a superior fuel. For the reasons, that hydrogen gas is renewable, free from greenhouse gases emission and liberates large amount of energy per unit weight during combustion, and it also gets converted into electricity by fuel cell easily. The utilization of biohydrogen as an energy source could be able to provide environmental safety as it does not liberate GHGs during combustion. The biohydrogen production could be economical with the latest developments and society will be benefitted with pollution control, which is added into environment during the combustion of other energy sources. The present review discusses various aspects with conclusions that considering social, economic and environmental benefits, biohydrogen energy could be considered as a sustainable source of future clean energy.