Biohydrogen Production from Agroindustrial Wastes: Pre-Treatment, Process Engineering and Techno-Economic Analysis

The depletion of fossil fuel sources of energy and environmental pollution due to their burning for energy application are two major problems faced by the present world, which have led to alternative sources of energy to feed the needs of continuously growing population and industries. The use of alternative renewable energy including energy derived from renewable biomass is one of the solutions proposed by researchers. This bioenergy includes ethanol, butanol, biodiesel, methane, hydrogen, etc., among which hydrogen is one of the best candidate to replace the traditional fossil fuel energy with high energy content. The recent focus on hydrogen production is towards use of waste resources which not only reduces the process cost but provides for alternative ways for waste management. The agriculture industry offers a good choice for this strategy as it generates large quantities of residues every year that are primarily disposed of by burning, dumping or unplanned landfilling. However, the vast diversity of agroindustrial waste and their compositional variation can be challenging for biohydrogen production. This chapter discusses the suitability of agroindustrial waste for biohydrogen production, the processes and important factors involved, including different improvement strategies. The key challenges and future research directions to overcome the same are also presented.