Chapter 10
Biofuels from Microalgae: Biohydrogen
Harshita Singh and Debabrata Das
Abstract Rapid industrialization and urbanization are mainly responsible for the
energy crisis, environmental pollution and climate change. In addition, depletion of
the fossil fuels is a major concern now. To confront these problems, it is essential to
produce energy from sustainable and renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is
widely considered as a clean and efficient energy carrier for the future because it
does not produce carbon-based emission and has the highest energy density among
any other known fuels. Due to the environmental and socioeconomic limitation
associated with conventional processes for the hydrogen production, new approaches of producing hydrogen from biological sources have been greatly encouraged.
From the perspective of sustainability, microalgae offer a promising source and
have several advantages for the biohydrogen production. Microalgae are characterized as high rate of cell growth with superior photosynthetic efficiency and can
be grown in brackish or wastewater on non-arable land. In recent years, biohydrogen production from microalgae via photolysis or being used as substrate in dark
fermentation is gaining considerable interest. The present chapter describes the
different methods involved in hydrogen production from microalgae. Suitability of
the microalgae as a feedstock for the dark fermentation is discussed. This review
also includes the challenges faced in hydrogen production from microalgae as well
as the genetic and metabolic engineering approaches for the enhancement of biohydrogen production.
Keywords Microalgae Á Biohydrogen Á Photolysis Á Dark fermentation
Genetic engineering
H. Singh Á D. Das (&)
Advance Technology Development Center, Indian Institute
of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
e-mail: ddas.iitkgp@gmail.com
D. Das
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur 721302, India
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
E. Jacob-Lopes et al. (eds.), Energy from Microalgae, Green Energy
and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69093-3_10
201
Biofuels from Microalgae: Biohydrogen
Harshita Singh and Debabrata Das
Abstract Rapid industrialization and urbanization are mainly responsible for the
energy crisis, environmental pollution and climate change. In addition, depletion of
the fossil fuels is a major concern now. To confront these problems, it is essential to
produce energy from sustainable and renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is
widely considered as a clean and efficient energy carrier for the future because it
does not produce carbon-based emission and has the highest energy density among
any other known fuels. Due to the environmental and socioeconomic limitation
associated with conventional processes for the hydrogen production, new approaches of producing hydrogen from biological sources have been greatly encouraged.
From the perspective of sustainability, microalgae offer a promising source and
have several advantages for the biohydrogen production. Microalgae are characterized as high rate of cell growth with superior photosynthetic efficiency and can
be grown in brackish or wastewater on non-arable land. In recent years, biohydrogen production from microalgae via photolysis or being used as substrate in dark
fermentation is gaining considerable interest. The present chapter describes the
different methods involved in hydrogen production from microalgae. Suitability of
the microalgae as a feedstock for the dark fermentation is discussed. This review
also includes the challenges faced in hydrogen production from microalgae as well
as the genetic and metabolic engineering approaches for the enhancement of biohydrogen production.
Keywords Microalgae Á Biohydrogen Á Photolysis Á Dark fermentation
Genetic engineering
H. Singh Á D. Das (&)
Advance Technology Development Center, Indian Institute
of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
e-mail: ddas.iitkgp@gmail.com
D. Das
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur 721302, India
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
E. Jacob-Lopes et al. (eds.), Energy from Microalgae, Green Energy
and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69093-3_10
201