Sustainable bioreactor systems for producing hydrogen

The overall goal of Hawaii`s BioHydrogen Program is to generate hydrogen from water using solar energy and microalgae under sustainable conditions. Specific bioprocess engineering objectives include the design, construction, testing and validation of a sustainable photobioreactor system. Specific objectives relating to biology include investigating and optimizing key physiological parameters of cyanobacteria of the genus Arthrospira (Spirulina), the organism selected for initial process development. Another objective is to disseminate the Mitsui-Miami cyanobacteria cultures, now part of the Hawaii Culture Collection (HCC), to other research groups. The approach is to use a single organisms for producing hydrogen gas from water. Key stages are the growth of the biomass, the dark induction of hydrogenase, and the subsequent generation of hydrogen in the light. The biomass production stage involves producing dense cultures of filamentous, non-heterocystous cyanobacteria and optimizing biomass productivity in innovative tubular photobioreactors. The hydrogen generation stages entail inducing the enzymes and metabolic pathways that enable both dark and light-driven hydrogen production. The focus of Year 1 has been on the construction and operation of the outdoor photobioreactor for the production of high-density mass cultures of Arthrospira. The strains in the Mitsui-Miami collection have been organized and distributed to other researchers who are more » beginning to report interesting results. The project is part of the International Energy Agency`s biohydrogen program. « less