Current prospects and future developments in algal bio-hydrogen production: a review

Abstract

The use of fossil fuels for energy demands is insufficient for escalating demands as they are limited in nature and are not environment friendly. Various microbial sources are under scanner for clean energy production out of which algae comes as a promising one. Production of biohydrogen from algae has brought a lot of hopes in the energy production sector. Algae are powerhouse of renewable chemicals including biofuel precursors. Biohydrogen is one of such biofuel precursors; it proves to be a clean and sustainable fuel and can be produced in industries. Currently however, it cannot stand up to the present energy demands of the world due to certain obstacles, such as cost effectiveness, storage and transportation of hydrogen. One of the main hurdles in algal biofuel technology is the rigid nature of algal cell wall. To get around this, pretreatment of algal biomass is imperative to overcome productivity issues, so as not to compromise biofuel yield. Improving the biofuel production at every step can make a huge difference in outcomes and thus comes up as a promising tool. Therefore, in the present state of art review, various methods of algal biomass pretreatment, different enzymes involved in hydrogen production, various factors influencing hydrogen production from algae and genetic engineering avenues have been discussed in brief. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.