Abstract
A laboratory-scale, helical tubular photobioreactor, made of polyvinyl chloride tubing, was constructed to study photobiological H2 production by cyanobacteria catalyzed by cellular nitrogenase. The photobioreactor was connected to a computer, with specially written software and hardware, for automated control of the biochemical and environmental processes regulating H2 evolution. A basic photobioreactor unit with a photostage volume of 4.35 L and containing Anabaena azollae grown in 98% air + 2% CO2 gas mixture produced H2 at a rate of 13 mL H2·h−1·L−1 culture suspension when the gas phase was changed to Ar. The H2 production was sustained for 6 h. No H2 evolution was observed in the presence of photosynthetic O2.
Techniques were introduced for keeping the cyanobacterial suspension in a turbulent state and for scrubbing the inside walls of the PVC tubing during the operation of the photobioreactor. A method for scale-up of the bioreactor is proposed.
Abbreviations: OD, optical density; PhBR, photobioreactor; PVC, polyvinylchloride.
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© 1998 Plenum Press, New York
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Tsygankov, A.A., Hall, D.O., Liu, Jg., Rao, K.K. (1998). An Automated Helical Photobioreactor Incorporating Cyanobacteria for Continuous Hydrogen Production. In: Zaborsky, O.R., Benemann, J.R., Matsunaga, T., Miyake, J., San Pietro, A. (eds) BioHydrogen. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35132-2_52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35132-2_52
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