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Review
. 2015 Jun 4;16(6):12578-600.
doi: 10.3390/ijms160612578.

Hydrogen Production by the Thermophilic Bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana

Nirakar Pradhan  1 , Laura Dipasquale  2 , Giuliana d'Ippolito  3 , Antonio Panico  4 , Piet N L Lens  5 , Giovanni Esposito  6 , Angelo Fontana  7
Affiliations
Review

Hydrogen Production by the Thermophilic Bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana

Nirakar Pradhan et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

As the only fuel that is not chemically bound to carbon, hydrogen has gained interest as an energy carrier to face the current environmental issues of greenhouse gas emissions and to substitute the depleting non-renewable reserves. In the last years, there has been a significant increase in the number of publications about the bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana that is responsible for production yields of H2 that are among the highest achievements reported in the literature. Here we present an extensive overview of the most recent studies on this hyperthermophilic bacterium together with a critical discussion of the potential of fermentative production by this bacterium. The review article is organized into sections focused on biochemical, microbiological and technical issues, including the effect of substrate, reactor type, gas sparging, temperature, pH, hydraulic retention time and organic loading parameters on rate and yield of gas production.

Keywords: biomass; carbon dioxide; energy carrier; fermentation; green-house gas; hydrogen; lactic acid; process kinetics; renewable energy; thermophilic bacteria.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Streamlined biochemical pathway for fermentative H2 production, adapted from Reference [22]. Water is omitted for simplicity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proposed model of capnophilic lactic fermentation, adapted from [57]. Water is omitted for simplicity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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