Biocatalytic membrane reactor modeling for fermentative hydrogen production from wastewater: A review

Biologically produced hydrogen is a valuable energy carrier generated from renewable sources such as wastewater. This review focuses on modeling a submerged membrane bioreactor, namely the whole-cell biocatalytic membrane reactor (BMR), for simultaneous cell immobilization and gas recovery in fermentative hydrogen production. This technol-ogy is presented as an alternative for improved gas separation, and its fundamentals are comprehensively overviewed. We discuss models and modeling strategies that can partially represent the phenomenology involved in the BMR of interest. Empirical or semiempirical models are a well-established tool for fermentative bioreactors. Although these might not be suitable for BMRs due to spatial heterogeneity and process complexity, we compare different kinetic expressions for hydrogen formation, focusing on reaction and mass transfer limiting steps. Moreover, models of BMRs or similar for wastewater treat-ment are analyzed by classifying the phenomena, variables, and gaps that they have not covered to describe the internal design appropriately.(c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.