A critical review on sustainable biohydrogen production

Abstract

The technologies of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have a great promise for treating wastewater and to produce the sustainable energy. This review has been discussed the application of several microbial communities used to achieve different goals, in the generation of biohydrogen and in extent of waste water treatment. MEC often use hydrogen-producing bacteria to produce hydrogen gas by water electrolysis technique. In MFCs and MECs, the bacterial communities are plays crucial role for the hydrogen production process, and in turn rely on several process variables, such as acidity, temperature, and concentration of the granule; thereby, it influences the bacteria population and their activities. The configuration of the system is one of the primary design elements that may have an impact on the performance of MFCs and MECs that were discussed in the later part of the review. Every configuration has benefits and limits, and the choice of the best configuration relies on the applications and it has been reviewed additionally as outlines the modern challenges concerned in the technology and contributes practical perspectives to restraints their overcomes.

Highlights

• To identify different functional group of microorganisms and its application of MEC/MFC.

• To optimize the react configuration and setup of MEC/MFC.

• To assist an Electron transfer mechanism through conducive environment between electrode and microbes.

• To optimize the performance and efficiency of biohydrogen production.

Keywords:

• Acidogenic bacteria
• anode-respiring bacteria
• cathode-respiring bacteria
• biohydrogen
• biofuel

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that no competing interests in this research article.

Data availability

Data will be available by made on request.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies involving animal or human participants performed by any of the authors.