Gas Chromatography as an Analytical Monitoring Technique for Hydrogen Production from Spirulina maxima 2342

Hydrogen (H2) production from experiments with Spirulina maxima 2342 is reported in this work. The performance of this photosynthetic microorganism for producing H2 was evaluated for the first time under specific experimental conditions (e.g., a biomass concentration of 0.34 ± 0.02 g, a light intensity of 150 μE.s-1.m-2 and reaction times of 19.3 ± 1.2 h). The performance of this photosynthetic microorganism for producing hydrogen was successfully improved by the addition of sodium dithionite (a reducing agent) as an innovative method for increasing the gas production, and as a main contribution of this work. Quantitative gas chromatography (GC) analyses of H2 to verify the production performance were successfully carried out at low concentration levels. GC analyses were performed by means of a conventional thermal conductivity detector coupled to a separation system of a Molecular Sieve column 500 mm × 3175 mm (L × ID). Low detection limits were consistently obtained with the GC system used. The separation of H2 in culture samples was efficiently achieved in average retention times of 1.47 min. The H2 produced in this process was subsequently used for power generation using a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC).