Evaluation of Biohydrogen Production Potential of Wastes

In this article, types of potential biomass that could be the source for biohydrogen generation such as energy crops, lignocellulosic residues, waste and wastewaters are discussed. the major criteria that have to be met for the selection of substrates suitable for fermentative biohydrogen production are availability, cost, carbohydrate content (high proportion of readily fermentable compounds such as sugars and carbohydrates) and biodegradability (a high concentration of degradable organic compounds and low concentration of inhibitory to microbiological activity compounds). although starchy and sugar based biomass and wastes are readily fermentable by microorganisms for hydrogen generation, lignocellulosic biomass needs to be pretreated. pretreatment is carry out for altering the structural features of biomass which are classified as psysical or chemical. in general, pretreatment methods of lignocellulosic biomass can be divided into three main types, according to the means used for altering its structural features: mechanical, physicochemical and biological.