Sustainable Strategies for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Materials into Biohydrogen: Challenges and Solutions toward Carbon Neutrality

Abstract

The present review mainly discusses advanced pretreatment techniques for converting lignocellulosic biomass into hydrogen. The focus of this review is also to acquire knowledge concerning lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment processes and their impact on the efficiency of biohydrogen fermentation. The deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass is presented using various pretreatment techniques albeit with several advantages and disadvantages, particularly about the interference due to the generated inhibitory compounds is toxic to microbes used for fermentation. The use of an appropriate pretreatment process can make the recalcitrant lignocellulosic biomass substrates amenable for further microbial fermentation to produce hydrogen. Although till date there is no ideal pretreatment step available to develop a cost-effective process for conversion of lignocellulosic materials into fermentable sugars, nanotechnology seem to be a more sustainable approach as compared to the traditional processes.