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The Science of Algal Fuels pp 305–320Cite as

Biotechnology of Hydrogen Production with the Microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 25))

Abstract

The increase in the cost of energy and the problem of global warming have fostered considerable international efforts to discover a sustainable way to produce energy with zero CO2 emission. One eco-friendly way of producing energy is the photobiological production of H2 using the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In specific conditions, this organism can direct electrons and protons obtained from water biophotolysis toward a specific enzyme, an [Fe]-hydrogenase, so as to obtain molecular H2. The process was discovered by Gaffron and Rubin (1942), who observed a transient H2 production with Scenedesmus. A way to prolong H2 production by means of inorganic sulfur deprivation was discovered by Melis and coworkers (Melis et al., 2000). In the past 10 years, considerable progress has been achieved in the photobiological production of hydrogen using Chlamydomonas under sulfur starvation conditions, and this has resulted in a number of papers being published on this subject (Melis et al., 2000; Kosourov et al., 2002, 2005, 2007; Tsygankov et al., 2002, 2006; Zhang et al., 2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi, Sede di Firenze, Via Madonna del Piano, 10-50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy

    Giuseppe Torzillo, Cecilia Faraloni & Luca Giannelli

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  1. Giuseppe Torzillo
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  2. Cecilia Faraloni
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  3. Luca Giannelli
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Torzillo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory, Clark Drive 222, Panacea, 32346, Florida, USA

    Richard Gordon

  2. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Torzillo, G., Faraloni, C., Giannelli, L. (2012). Biotechnology of Hydrogen Production with the Microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . In: Gordon, R., Seckbach, J. (eds) The Science of Algal Fuels. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5110-1_17

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