Biohydrogen Production from Wastewaters

Biohydrogen production technology is an emerging field for the advanced wastewater treatment with cogeneration of energy. Besides, hydrogen is an excellent candidate with high energy value (122 kJ/g) than other known carbon‐based fuels with no adverse effects to the environment as it releases only water vapor as the by‐products during the combustion. Biohydrogen production technology can be assisted through two major pathways: (a) light‐dependent reaction (biophotolysis and photofermentation) and (b) light‐independent reaction (dark fermentation and microbial electrohydrogenesis cells). The light‐dependent reaction can be catalyzed by photosynthetic bacteria, whereas the dark fermentation catalyzed by the heterotrophic bacterial group of facultative and obligate anaerobes. The wastewaters are a rich source of organic nutrients which supports the growth of hydrogen producers along with the disposal of waste and energy recovery. In the present chapter, the recent advancements on biohydrogen production technology from wastewaters with respect to the (a) inoculum development, (b) process optimization, (c) scale‐up and (d) the challenges and perspectives toward the improvement of this emerging technology for the wastewater treatment.