Advanced strategies for enhancing dark fermentative biohydrogen production from biowaste towards sustainable environment

As a clean energy carrier, hydrogen is a promising alternative to fossil fuel so as the global growing energy demand can be met. Currently, producing hydrogen from biowastes through fermentation has attracted much attention due to its multiple advantages of biowastes management and valuable energy generation. Nevertheless, conventional dark fermentation (DF) processes are still hindered by the low biohydrogen yields and challenges of biohydrogen purification, which limit their commercialization. In recent years, researchers have focused on various advanced strategies for enhancing biohydrogen yields, such as screening of super hydrogen-producing bacteria, genetic engineering, cell immobilization, nanomaterials utilization, bioreactors modification, and combination of different processes. This paper critically reviews by discussing the above stated technologies employed in DF, respectively, to improve biohydrogen generation and stating challenges and future perspectives on biowaste-based biohydrogen production.