BioH2 & BioCH4 Through Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic digestion has traditionally been used to reduce the organic content of waste; this results in a biogas that primarily of CH4 and CO2. The conversion of organic matter using emerging technologies to produce H2 by Hydrogen Producing Bacteria (HPB) and repress the CH4-producing bacteria is becoming ripe in the field of sustainable technology among the pallet of H2 generation technologies. The combined bio production of hydrogen and methane from Organic Waste Materials (OWM) is considered to be an ideal way of utilizing waste, and it can increase energy efficiency (the substrate Heat Value converted to H2 and CH4 fuel) to about 90%, since the energy efficiency of H2-production (20%) is energetically uncompetitive. A two-phase production technique of hydrogen and methane is presented in this book. In the first phase, the reaction conditions are optimized to obtain the maximum amount of hydrogen, which can be used in fuel cells after purification and further enrichment. In the second phase, the liquid residual of the first phase is used as a substrate to produce traditional fuel-methane, which can be supplied as civilian industry fuel gas or used for transportation purposes. All the aspects of this sustainable technology are taken into account, from the basic biochemical implications, to engineering and establishing design criteria and scale-up procedures for a full-scale application. The sustainability of the two-phase bioH2 + bioCH4 has been considered by applying EROI (energy return on invested) and EPT (energy payback time) criteria, and the general approach and application to the field of Anaerobic Digestion have been illustrated.