ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of dark fermentative Hydrogen (H2) production by pure cultures and microbial consortia, along with a critical review on the processes involved in biological conversion of lignocellulosic-based and waste biomass to H2, and the application of life cycle analysis to bioH2 production. Dark fermentative H2 production offers several advantages in comparison with the other biological counterparts, including process simplicity, low energy requirements, and ability to generate H2 from a wide variety of economic organic substrates, such as food wastes, wastewater, agricultural residues, forestry wastes, wastepaper, algal biomass, and energy crops. Higher H2 yields are associated with the formation of acetate, whereas the formation of more reduced metabolites, such as butyrate and lactate, implicates lower H2 production. The main objective of using cocultures of C. butyricum with other microorganisms for H2 production is associated with attempts to increase the extension of substrate utilization and production yields and rates.
