Hydrogen Production Via Anaerobic Fermentation of Cornstalk

Lignocellulosic biomass is considered as one of promising resources for the production of renewable energy. The microbial conversion of the lignocellulosic biomass into hydrogen is attracting increasing interest because hydrogen is as one of the most promising energy carriers for the future. However, this bioconversion efficiency is still limited because of low biodegradability of the lignocellulosic biomass. Therefore, there is a need to develop an efficient technique to disrupt recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic biomass for improving hydrogen production. Achievements in our research group together with recent progress around the world will be critically reviewed in this paper, and future perspectives in the field of biohydrogen production from lignocellulosic waste will be outlined. An emphasis is given on an efficient hydrogen production process via thermophilic fermentation of cornstalk by co-cultures of Clostridium thermocellum and C. thermosaccharolyticum integrated with alkaline hydrolysis. Together these results will establish the most important conditions to explore for future process development on biohydrogen production.