New and traditional energy resources from microbial activities in the agroindustrial system

Microbial processes leading to the production of energy from vegetable biomasses and from residues of the agroindustry make possible the exploitation of widely available and renewable energy sources which can be considered at zero balance with regard to CO2 fixation and emission. These processes show a different level of technological maturity: some of them, like the production of bioethanol or biogas, are well established and diffused processes, while others, like hydrogen production, are in the phase of advanced research. Considering the future prospects, the latter process is the most promising owing to the high calorific value of hydrogen and the absence of polluting emissions when H2 is used for combustions or for the production of electricity with fuel cells. In this review, the research activities carried out, in the field of biogas and hydrogen production, by research groups belonging to the Italian Society for Agricultural, Environmental and Food Microbiology (SIMTREA) are presented.