Scaling-up bio-hydrogen production from food waste: Feasibilities and challenges

Hydrogen has potential as a renewable energy source due to its outstanding clean energy content. The production of hydrogen from food waste by dark fermentation gains attention from researchers across the world as it requires lower energy and chemicals compared to other chemical routes, not to mention that the use of food waste as raw material could help lessen the global waste dumping crisis. Currently, the knowledge of hydrogen production from food waste by dark fermentation is still limited in a laboratory scale. This article intends to provide up-to-date status quo on this technology. Factors affecting production potential, appropriate condition of production, feasibility of scaled-up production and economic value analysis of such technology is summarized and analyzed.