Springer Microbial BioEnergy: Hydrogen Production: 38 (Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, 38)

The central theme of this book “Microbial BioEnergy: Hydrogen Production” is focused on the biological machinery that microorganisms use to produce hydrogen gas. The book summarizes the achievements over the past decade in the biochemistry, structural and molecular biology, genomics and applied aspects of microbial H2-production, including microbial fuel cells (MFC), by phototrophs such as purple sulfur and non-sulfur bacteria (Thiocapsa spp., Rhodobacter and Rhodopseudomonas spp.) microalgae (Chlamydomonas) and cyanobacteria (Anabaena spp.) along with anaerobes and thermophiles such as Caldicellulosiruptor and Thermotoga. This is the first book of this series entirely devoted to microbial bio-hydrogen production and is intended to be a precious source of information for PhD students, researchers and undergraduates from disciplines such as microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology, photochemistry and chemical engineering, interested in basic and applied sciences. Review “The current volume has 15 chapters written by 42 authors almost exclusively from Europe and North America … . I also recommend that this book be acquired by all the laboratories engaged in biohydrogen research, as well as by all universities and research institutes with advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows in Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Biotechnology.” (Michael Seibert, Photosynthesis Research, Vol. 127, 2016) From the Back Cover Solar energy is the source of most of the living organisms on Earth so that the overall efficiency of oxygenic and/or non-oxygenic photosynthesis, when used to generate biomass, bioenergy and biofuels, is a critical point to be considered. This volume in the Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration series, however, not only provides a comprehensive view of the current understanding of the photosynthetic mechanisms linked to bio-hydrogen production but also extends this view to the anaerobic-dark processes involved in transforming the solar-generated biomass into biogas along with a deep coverage of both structural and functional aspects of the main enzymes involved, such as nitrogenases and hydrogenases. The fifteen chapters of this book offer a broad coverage of this emerging research field and, it is hoped, will be accessible to most advanced undergraduates, graduate students, PhD students and researchers looking to broaden their knowledge on the photosynthetic and fermentation processes applied to hydrogen gas generation. For biologists, biochemists, biophysicists and microbiologists, this volume will provide a solid and quick starting base to get into biotechnological problems of “ microbial bioenergy”. This volume will also be of interest to advanced undergraduates in chemical engineering and biotechnology teachers wanting a single reference book on the latest understanding of the critical aspects of microbial bioenergy production. This volume is dedicated to both Hans Gaffron (1902-1979), who discovered H2-production by green algae under sulfur starvation in 1942, and Howard Gest (1921-2012), who first described H2-production by purple non-photosynthetic bacteria in 1949. About the Author Davide Zannoni, Professor of General Microbiology, received the doctoral degree in Biological Sciences, in 1973, from the University of Bologna, Italy; his thesis was on the Bioenergetics of the facultative photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter (Rb.) capsulatus. During 1977-1978, he was a research fellow of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the St. Louis Medical School, Department of Biochemistry, St. Louis MO, USA, under the supervision of Professor Barry L. Marrs. In 1979, he was appointed Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry and in 1981, he was promoted to become Associate Professor of Plant Biochemistry, at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Bologna. As a research fellow of the European Molecula