Fermentative molecular biohydrogen production from cheese whey: present prospects and future strategy

Waste-dependent fermentative routes for biohydrogen production present a possible scenario to produce hydrogen gas on a large scale in a sustainable way. Cheese whey contains a high portion of organic carbohydrate and other organic acids, which makes it a feasible substrate for biohydrogen production. In the present review, recent research progress related to fermentative technologies, which explore the potentiality of cheese whey for biohydrogen production as an effective tool on a large scale, has been analyzed systematically. In addition, application of multiple response surface methodology tools such as full factorial design, Box-Behnken model, and central composite design during fermentative biohydrogen production to study the interactive effects of different bioprocess variables for higher biohydrogen yield in batch, fed-batch, and continuous mode is also discussed. The current paper also emphasizes computational fluid dynamics-based simulation designs, by which the substrate conversion efficiency of the cheese whey-based bioprocess and temperature distribution toward the turbulent flow of reaction liquid can be enhanced. The possible future developments toward higher process efficiency are outlined.