Biohydrogen production through the biological water gas shift reaction for sustainable energy: Prediction of the effect of key parameters

Developing sustainable hydrogen production technologies is essential to meet the global energy transition. In this context, the present study focusses on exploring an alternative which is, the biological water-gas-shift reaction using Rhodospirillum rubrum under anaerobic conditions as a potential route for biohydrogen generation. The study consists to concretizing the effect of key parameters on the performances of the bioprocess, especially in terms of hydrogen productivity. The main results show that the highest hydrogen productivity could be achieved when using a smaller working volume, a smaller orifice diameter of the bioreactor, and a moderate inlet carbon monoxide pressure and agitation speed. Noteworthy, it was found that there was a gain of 20 % in hydrogen production when using an industrial system compared to the lab-scale fermenter. Therefore, the results obtained by the predictive model could highlight the relevance of the bioprocess as a valuable route and as veritable guidelines for industrial biohydrogen production design.