Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Gema Sevilla Toboso and Jesus Rodriguez Ruiz
Centro Nacional del Hidrogeno (CNH2), Spain
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Increasing demand for energy, depletion of primary energy sources (i.e., coal and oil) and environmental degradation
have made the production of energy from alternative nonconventional sources essential. In the same way, recent trends in
food production have led to an increase in the generation of wastes during food processing, that needs further management
to avoid environmental problems. Therefore, hydrogen produced from renewable sources could play an important role for
future energy economy as clean, CO2 neutral and environmentally friendly energy carrier. Hydrogen is easily used in fuel
cells for electricity production, whose high energy yield of 122 kJ gâ?? 1, which is 2.75 times greater than known hydrocarbon
fuels, allows its use as a fuel for transportation. In addition, it can be stored not only chemically but also physiochemically
in various solid and liquid composites. Hydrogen can be produced from a wide-ranging variety of primary energy sources
and different production technologies. However, currently most of it is produced by Steam Reforming from nonrenewable
feedstock, producing high greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, fermentative hydrogen production can utilize renewable
carbohydrate-based substrates, such as waste biomass from agricultural sectors. Furthermore, this process occurs at
lower temperatures and pressures, and is therefore less energy-intensive than chemical and electrochemical processes. So,
abundant biomass from various industries could be a sustainable source for biohydrogen (hydrogen produced by living
organisms) where combination of waste treatment and energy production would be an advantage. In this work different
types of agro-food industry waste from Castilla- La Mancha (dairy wastes, beer lees, winery waste and mushroom waste)
have been studied in order to determine the substrate with the highest biohydrogen production by dark fermentation. For
this purpose, different experiments have been carried out with the aim of quantify certain characteristics of substrates, like
carbohydrate content and trace elements, that influence in the H2 yield.
Recent Publications
1. Singh A and Rathore D (2017) Biohydrogen production: sustainability of current technology and future
perspective. Springer India.
2. Urbaniec K and Bakker R (2015) Biomass residues as raw material for dark hydrogen fermentation â?? A review.
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 40(9):3648-3658.
3. Kumar G, Shobana S, Nagarajan D, Lee D J, Lee K S, Lin C Y and Chang J S (2018) Biomass based hydrogen
production by dark fermentationâ??recent trends and opportunities for greener processes. Current Opinion in
Biotechnology 50:136-145.
4. Robledo-Narváez P N, Muñoz-Páez K M, Poggi-Varaldo H M, RĂos-Leal E, Calva-Calva G, Ortega-Clemente
L A and Salazar Montoya J A (2013) The influence of total solids content and initial pH on batch biohydrogen
production by solid substrate fermentation of agroindustrial wastes. Journal of Environmental Management
128:126-137.
5. Bharathi Raja B, Sudharsanaa T, Bharghavi A, Jayamuthunagai J and Praveen kumar R (2016) Biohydrogen and
biogas: an overview on feedstocks and enhancement process. Fuel 185:810-828.
Gema Sevilla Toboso has her expertise in improving the environment. Her evaluation based on agro-food industry waste from Castilla-La Mancha creates new ways to produce hydrogen and thus improve the environment through the generation of a fuel that does not produce greenhouse gases while treating this waste. Her investigation is carried out in CNH2, a National Research Centre at the service of the entire Scientific, Technology and Industrial Community.
E-mail: gema.sevilla@cnh2.es