Development of a fermentation-based process for biomass conversion to hydrogen gas

作者：Claassen Pieternel A M; de Vrije Truus; Urbaniec Krzysztof^*; Grabarczyk Robert

来源：Zuckerindustrie, 2010, 135(4): 218-221.

• hydrogen fermentation
• biomass

The production of hydrogen gas from biomass to meet the foreseen demand arising from the expected introduction of fuel cells is envisaged. Apart from the well-known gasification method, fermentative conversion can also be applied for this purpose. Two options of the latter method, that is, thermophilic fermentation and photofermentation can be combined in a two-stage process in which about 70% of hydrogen present in biomass is converted to gaseous form. It is expected that this process can be applied in decentralized, small-scale production units.
The main stages of the fermentative hydrogen production process are the following:
- biomass pretreatment to give fermentable feedstock and non-fermentables,
- thermophilic fermentation in which fermentable feedstock is converted to hydrogen gas and organic acids,
- photofermentation in which the organic acids are converted to hydrogen gas,
- upgrading of hydrogen gas to meet product specification,
- separation and treatment of non-fermentables.
In order to develop a sustainable hydrogen production route based on fermentation, it is necessary to improve the existing knowledge of these process stages and to carry out process optimization studies. As a major step in this direction, the European research project HYVOLUTION has been organized under the 6(th) Framework Programme of the EU.

• 出版日期2010-4-15