Insights into renewable biohydrogen production from algal biomass: technical hurdles and economic analysis

With the rapid growth of the global population and economy, consumption for fossil resources like coal, oil, and natural gases has soared. The release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels causes catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate. Because of their non-renewability, fossil fuels will be depleted within a few decades. To replace fossil fuels, many researchers are motivated to develop alternative renewable energy sources. Recently, it has been discovered that microalgae have great promise for the generation of biodiesel and biohydrogen. Under specific circumstances, green microalgae use sunlight to split aqueous particles producing oxygenation and molecular hydrogen. Photosynthetic bacteria have also been suggested as a potential feedstock for the manufacture of biofuels, which is believed to be the best alternative to gasoline diesel. In this study, several techniques for producing biohydrogen from microalgae including indirect and direct biophotolysis, trans-esterification, and lipid synthesis are briefly reviewed. Hence, this article is useful for examining theories that may be applied in later research to produce hydrogen and biohydrogen from biomass resources.