Biohydrogen - Advances and Processes

This book presents an introduction to biohydrogen production and the recent advances and developments of the cleanest biofuel produced from bioresources.

Biohydrogen has the highest energy content relative to weight and burns cleanly – generating just water. It is the best choice for fuel cells, where it generates electricity directly, in its reaction with oxygen. Biohydrogen occurs naturally as part of digestive gases from mammals and can be produced in specially designed anaerobic biodigesters, or through photocatalysis with microalgae. The gas is also easy to purify and use. 

The economic production of biohydrogen is still full of challenges: From the efficient and rapid conversion of the substrate to storage, transportation, and safe use, there are several aspects that need to be developed.

Research in this field is addressing the issue of efficient large-scale production from several directions: Substrate pretreatment to enhance digestibility, metabolic networks analysis, microbial diversity and succession to highlight constraints in production, bioreactor, and downstream design to improve throughput and reduce costs, to name a few.

The ideas and technologies presented in this book contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

The book is written for researchers and students interested in biorefinery and biofuel technologies.

Professor Carlos Ricardo Soccol is a research group leader within the Department of Bioprocesses Engineering and Biotechnology (DEBB) at the Federal University of Paraná. Professor Soccol has experience in bioprocessing/biological engineering, industrial biotechnology, biofuel technology, applied microbiology and fermentation technology. His research has resulted in 1418 publications, including 111 patents, 31 books, 175 book chapters, 511 original papers and 590 research communications at conferences/symposia. His research articles have so far been cited more than 40.000 times on Google Scholar (H-index = 95). He has also successfully supervised 91 doctoral students, 135 master's students, and 24 post-doctoral students. He is Professor HDR at the University of AIX-Marseille-France (2001- ). He was a visiting professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (2009), University Lille 1-France (2014) and University Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand-France (2015). He has received several national and international awards, including the Science and Technology Award of the Government of Paraná (1996), Best Scientific Achievement of the Year 2001 by Ministry of Sugar of Cuba (MINAZ), The Scopus/Elsevier Award (2009), Dr Honoris Causa, University Blaise Pascal-France (2010), Outstanding Scientist at 5th International Conference on Industrial Bioprocesses, Taipei, Taiwan, Henri Nestlé Award - Nestlé, Brazil (2014), Scientist of the Year - Nanocell Institute (2017), Medal of Scientific Merit by Ministry Science Technology and  Innovation - Brazilian Government (2018). Since 2014, Professor Soccol is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and editor-in-chief of the Journal Biotechnology Research Innovation. He also holds the position of scientist IA of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq, Brazil. He is a technical and scientific consultant for several companies, and agencies and a co-editor and editorial board member of several scientific journals. 

Professor Satinder Kaur Brar is the James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering and Director of One WATER Institute at York University. Her research is on the intersecting areas of environmental engineering and its impact on the overall well-being of the global community. She primarily works in the two converging fields of value-addition of wastes and removal of emerging contaminants. Many national and international awards and honors have been bestowed on her that prove her research mettle. Notable ones being, in 2021, Best Paper Award, and in 2019, Eddy Principles/Processes Wastewater Medal winner, honored by the Water Environment Federation; in 2017, her research on “Novel and Advanced Hybrid Oxidation and Enzymatic Technologies for Emerging Trace Environmental Contaminants” were awarded the Grand Prize in University Research for Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES). She was recently inducted into the European Academy of Sciences in 2021 and has been a member of the College of New Scholars, Scientists and Artists of the Royal Society of Canada, since 2014. She leads the Bioprocessing and NanoEnzyme Formulation Facility (BANEFF) at York University and this unit has successfully led to the training of 72 HQPs (including 45 undergraduates and summer interns). Currently, she is supervising 4 PDFs, 2 research associates, one research assistant, 11 Ph.D.s and 2 M.Scs. She has published more than 400 articles, edited 12 books and at least 55 invited talks to her credit.

Professor  Kugen Permaul obtained his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  His early research projects focused on bacterial molecular genetics, especially plasmid biology.  He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1999 and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow before leading the Enzyme Technology Research Group at the Durban University of Technology - a focus area of research at DUT. He has steadily progressed up the academic ranks and was awarded a full professorship in 2011.  He was appointed Head of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science from 2014-2017.  His research projects involved: the detection and quantification of mycotoxins in food commodities; production of potable water by ultrafiltration; characterisation and production of amylase, inulinase and chitinase enzymes; directed evolution and expression of a xylanase enzyme and genomic sequencing of a thermophilic fungus.  Current research projects focus on the expression of carbohydrase genes; and the use of chitin as a bioresource.  He was the principal investigator of a BRICS bioethanol project involving researchers from universities from all 5 BRICS nations and is involved in a new BRICS biohydrogen grant until 2025.  Current supervision includes 4 PhD and 8 Masters students with 9 doctoral and 21 Masters completed.

Professor Kannan Pakshirajan specializes in the biological removal and recovery of metals and non-metals from waste. He is a professor of environmental biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati, Assam, India. Since 2004, he has been conducting research at IIT Guwahati focusing on xenobiotic biodegradation, cleaner production of biosurfactants, biofuels and biopolymers, and biorefinery. He served as a Visiting Researcher at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands, during 2011-2012, and at the University of Galway, Ireland, during the year 2019. He has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and 20 book chapters and co-edited two books. He has guided twenty PhD students and many master’s students and trained several postdoctoral researchers thus far. He has completed nine major research projects, sponsored by different funding agencies, as the principal investigator (PI). He is an active life member of renowned professional societies which include the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), Bioprocessing Society – India (BPI) and Biotechnology Research Consortium of India (BRSI).

Dr. Júlio C. de Carvalho is a chemical engineer and professor of the Graduate Course of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology at the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. After earning his PhD in biotechnological processes in 2004, he joined UFPR as faculty, having worked with FD&C bioadditives (especially biopigments and lipids), bioprocess modelling, microalgal biotechnology, bio-based chemicals (especially itaconic acid), and engineering education. He has published 96 papers, 53 book chapters, and registered 25 patents. With an H-index = 34 and 4781 citations (GScholar), Dr. Carvalho has advised students for 6 Doctoral theses and 13 Masters dissertations. He is currently engaged in research that supports scaling-up and integration of bioprocesses, for biohydrogen, microalgal biomass and bioadditives production.