Valorisation of Agro-industrial Residues – Volume I: Biological Approaches

The global rise in demand for fats and oil has made the palm oil industry grown tremendously over the last decades in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Malaysian agro-industrial sector alone accounts for about 51% of the world’s palm oil production and 62% of the world’s export. The sector has generated billions of dollars in revenues, and tonnes of wastes too. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the most abundant waste generated during the crude oil extraction process. Efficient and effective POME treatment technologies are still being actively investigated. POME has great potential as a substrate for biohydrogen production due to the high content of degradable organic matter. Dark fermentation, among the various biological processes for biohydrogen production, is highly favored due to the lower cost and low energy requirement. However, achieving a high biohydrogen yield is the main challenge, due to the co-production of organic acids. Additional treatment steps using bioelectrochemical systems (BES), such as microbial J. O. Audu Faculty of Science, Department of Biosciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Department of Laboratory Technology, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Adamawa State, Yola, Nigeria E. L. N. Dzulkarnain · Z. Ibrahim · N. Ibrahim Faculty of Science, Department of Biosciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia M. F. Abdul-Wahab (*) Faculty of Science, Department of Biosciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Taiwan-Malaysia Innovation Center for Clean Water and Sustainable Energy (WISE Centre), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia e-mail: firdausw@utm.my © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Z. A. Zakaria et al. (eds.), Valorisation of Agro-industrial Residues – Volume I: Biological Approaches, Applied Environmental Science and Engineering for a Sustainable Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39137-9_1 1 electrolysis cell (MEC), can provide the much-needed solution. Enhanced biohydrogen production can potentially be achieved when dark fermentation is coupled with MEC, with better POME treatment. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) can provide additional treatment step, with simultaneous electricity generation. This chapter reviews the various dark fermentation technologies that have been employed in producing biohydrogen from POME, the methods employed to improve biohydrogen yield, the advancements in BES, and the potential integration with dark fermentation for enhanced biohydrogen production.