Bio-production of Hydrogen and Methane Through Anaerobic Digestion Stages

Abstract

The anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widespread technology for the energetic valorization of organic wastes and the plants number is increasing both in industrialized and emerging countries. On the other hand, a low efficiency of the biogas production is still observed mainly due to the limited knowledge on the microorganism interactions and the lack of microbiological monitoring in the AD process. The energetic valorization of organic waste, producing both methane and hydrogen, can be increased by applying microbial ecology principles and exploiting the potential offered by functional microbial biodiversity.