Towards hydrogen production from waste activated sludge: Principles, challenges and perspectives

Abstract Hydrogen production from waste activated sludge (WAS) was widely considered and intensively investigated as a promising technology to recover energy from wastewater treatment plants. To date, no efforts have been made on either systematic summarization or critical thinking of the application niche of hydrogen production from WAS treatment. It is therefore time to evaluate whether and how to recover hydrogen in a future paradigm of WAS treatment. In this critical review, the principles and potentials, microorganisms, possible technologies, and process parameters of hydrogen generation were analyzed. Microbial electrolysis cell shows high theoretical hydrogen yield and could utilize a variety of organic compounds as substrates, which is regarded as a prospective technology for hydrogen production. However, the poor organics utilization and rapid consumptions of produced hydrogen hindered hydrogen recovery from WAS. Based on the analysis of the current state of the literatures, the opportunities and challenges of hydrogen production from WAS are rethought, the detailed knowledge gaps and perspective of hydrogen production from WAS were discussed, and the probable solutions of hydrogen recovery from WAS treatment are figured out. To guide the application and development of hydrogen recovery, a more promising avenue through rational integration of the available technologies to form a hybrid process is finally proposed. The integrated operational paradigm of WWTPs could achieve substantial technical, environmental and economic benefits. In addition, how this hybrid process works is illustrated, the challenges of this hybrid process and future efforts to be made in the future are put forward.