5th RTD Framework Programme

The main objective of the current project is the production of hydrogen from European energy crops and wastes employing anaerobic, thermophilic or hyperthermophilic microorganisms in order to supply the fuel cell industry with clean hydrogen gas derived from renewable resources.

The project involves several disciplines which are all aimed at the complete integrated production of biomass, the processing, the conversion and the application of the final product hydrogen. The first objective is the selection, supply, storage and adaptation of the biomass from energy crops and waste streams to match the requirements of a suitable feedstock for (hyper)thermophilic fermentation. The modified biomass will subsequently feed the ‘hydrogen’ factory which is composed of two fermentations. The first stage involves the (hyper)thermophilic conversion of the feedstock to hydrogen, carbon dioxide and organic acids. The second fermentation addresses the photoheterotrophic conversion of organic acids to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. There are several objectives in this part of the project. Firstly, existing and newly isolated (hyperthermophilic) microorganisms will be employed for the optimalisation of heterotrophic hydrogen production. At the same time, similar research will be done on the photoheterotrophic production of hydrogen from organic acids. In both cases, genetic engineering will be used to improve the selected strains to finally achieve the theoretically maximal production of 12 moles of hydrogen per mole consumed glucose. Directly associated with these separate objectives of the optimalisation of hydrogen production by the microorganisms, there is a technological objective of combining the fermentations to establish a stable hydrogen producing bioprocess with optimal efficiency. The ‘hydrogen’ factory is ready when the production of hydrogen from both fermentations is coupled to an efficient hydrogen recovery process in which hydrogen is collected and carbon dioxide is removed.

As stated above, the main objective of this project is to deliver biohydrogen for application in fuel cells. Therefore, the final product will be subjected to analysis with respect to specifications of this application. The combination of producers of feedstock and hydrogen and potential end-users in this project offers the opportunity to define such specifications right from the start of the development and to adjust process parameters accordingly. In this way, economical and environmental constraints will be recognized immediately, facilitating fine-tuning of the bioprocess.