Photobiological Production of Hydrogen from Spirulina for Fueling Fuel Cells

Abstract

Natural resources of the world are shrinking day by day with ever increasing population and man's growing need for commercialization of petroleum, natural gas, coal, etc. Therefore, there is a need for finding an alternative fuel that could replace these conventional fuels. Hydrogen seems to be an ideal candidate, since hydrogen is a cleaner source of energy. Fuel cell is a good device that converts hydrogen directly into electrical energy efficiently. However, availability of hydrogen is a problem. There are many conventional methods for producing hydrogen, like thermochemical process, catalytic reforming of hydrocarbons, and electrolysis of water, but these methods are not economical and are mostly non-renewable. Biological means of producing hydrogen offers a renewable source of hydrogen production. Cyanobacteria can split water into hydrogen. Anabaena sp. is found to produce more hydrogen than other species of cyanobacteria; however, if this has to be cultured only for hydrogen production, it may not be commercially viable. Spirulina sp. has a good food value and can produce hydrogen as a byproduct. In order to reduce the cost of the fuel cell, the platinum anode may be replaced by a carbon electrode impregnated with suitable inexpensive metal that may have good catalytic activity such as Co-Al oxide spinel and nickel. Studies towards the photobiological production of hydrogen were undertaken. Hydrogen based fuel cell was assembled and fabricated and these studies are being reported.

Keywords:

• carbon electrode
• fuel cell
• photobiological hydrogen production
• spirulina platensis
• spirulina uses