Hydrogen Production from Food Processing Wastewater

The food processing industry generates abundant biomass highly concentrated with carbohydrate and sugar-rich wastewater. Hydrogen can be produced from the fermentation of these sugars. Biohydrogen production is promising since it can potentially replace a part of the needed day-to-day fossil fuels. This chapter looks at various processing steps such as anaerobic digestion that leads to the gasification of organic wastewaters, bio-photolysis, photo fermentation, and dark fermentation along with combinations of these steps. Dark fermentation can be performed on food waste and wastewater-activated sludge. This chapter covers the process steps and controls required for best results. Biohydrogen production by anaerobic dark fermentation under different environmental controls, such as the preliminary thermal shock (temperature) and pH, will be evaluated to determine the influence on production efficiency.