Challenges and Opportunities in Green Hydrogen Production Materials for Biological Hydrogen Production

Biohydrogen is regarded as an attractive renewable source of clean energy and an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional fossil fuels. BioH2 can be produced via different biological pathways like direct and indirect biophotolysis, photo-fermentation, dark-fermentation, and bio-electrolysis using microbial electrolysis cells (MEC). The MEC is a bioelectrochemical approach that can be used to treat wastewater and produce biohydrogen, simultaneously. The MEC performance is highly affected by several factors such as microbial communities, cathode and anode catalysts’ activities, electrode materials and structures, current output, reactor design, associated anode and biocathode, catalysts, and substrate type, and concentration used. This chapter provides an overview of the recent developments in biological and non-biological materials involved in microbial electrolysis cells for biohydrogen production. The microbial species and enzymes, bio-inspired catalysts, advances in materials, and integration systems applied in these bioprocesses to improve catalytic performance, achieve lower configuration cost, and provide stable and efficient biohydrogen production are presented.