Advancement of bio-hydrogen production from microalgae

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, ensuring energy security is a key challenge to economic and political stability of the globe. Biological hydrogen production from microalgae is the promising alternative source for potential renewable energy which only releases water vapor as by-product without polluting environment as it does by fossil fuel, emitting CO2 when burnt. Microalgae can generate hydrogen by bio-photolysis or photo-fermentation. Two enzymes, viz., hydrogenase and nitrogenase, are responsible for biological hydrogen production process in metabolic pathway of microalgae. Though successful research has been conducted at laboratory scale producing hydrogen from microalgae, low yield has been recognized as challenge due to light capturing efficiency, oxygen sensitivity of enzyme, CO2 fixation efficiency, etc. during its bulk production for commercialization. In biological H2 production, cost reduction in algae culture and downstream process is required to make it economically feasible. Therefore present research emphasizes overcoming key challenges for scaling up biomass and H2 production through genetic and low-cost designed photo-bioreactors. This chapter depicted the principles of photobiological hydrogen production in microalgae along with various recent approaches and emerging strategies to mitigate the present limitations for hydrogen production.