Biohydrogen production: prospects and limitations to practical application

Hydrogen may be produced by a number of processes, including electrolysis of water, thermocatalytic reformation of hydrogen-rich organic compounds, and biological processes. Currently, hydrogen is produced, almost exclusively, by electrolysis of water or by steam reformation of methane. Biological production of hydrogen (Biohydrogen) technologies provide a wide range of approaches to generate hydrogen, including direct biophotolysis, indirect biophotolysis, photo-fermentations, and dark-fermentation. The practical application of these technologies to every day energy problems, however, is unclear. In this paper, hydrogen production rates of various biohydrogen systems are compared by first standardizing the units of hydrogen production and then by calculating the size of biohydrogen systems that would be required to power proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells of various sizes.