Chapter VII - Hydrogen from Algae

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Introduction

There is a great divide when it comes to opinions on the importance of hydrogen to our future energy economy.

On one side of the divide, hydrogen gas is seen as a future energy carrier with phenomenal potential by virtue of the fact that it is renewable, does not emit the "greenhouse gas" CO2 in combustion, liberates large amounts of energy per unit weight in combustion, and is easily converted to electricity by fuel cells.

On the other side are those who point out that there are some fundamental problems with hydrogen that will ensure that it will forever remain just a great green hope and nothing more than that.

These divided opinions however have not stopped considerable research being conducted to produce and store hydrogen.

Hydrogen is currently being produced primarily from fossil fuels such as natural gas. Biological hydrogen production has several advantages over hydrogen production by traditional processes. Biological hydrogen production by photosynthetic microorganisms for example, requires the use of a simple solar reactor such as a transparent closed box, with low energy requirements. If such processes could be made to work on a large-scale, we would have a renewable source of hydrogen.

Attempts to produce hydrogen from renewable sources have been going on for over three decades, though it has picked up momentum of late. The oil crisis in 1973, for instance, prompted research into biological hydrogen production, including photosynthetic production, as part of the search for alternative energy technologies. This chapter focuses on efforts to use algae to produce hydrogen.

List of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Methodologies for Producing Hydrogen from Algae
    • Biochemical Processes
    • Hydrogen Production through Gasification of Algae Biomass
    • Through Steam Reformation of Methane derived from Algae
  • Factoids
  • Current Methods of Hydrogen Production
  • Current & Future Uses of Hydrogen
  • Why Hasn’t The Hydrogen Economy Bloomed? – Problems with Hydrogen

Key Takeaways from the chapter

  1. Hydrogen production from algae is possible through three distinct routes.
  2. Currently, hydrogen production from algae in the research stage and few commercial efforts are pursuing this route.
  3. Among currently known processes, biomass gasification technology is considered to be the most appropriate for large-scale, centralized hydrogen production, due to the nature of handling large amounts of biomass and the required economy of scale for this type of process.
  4. Biochemical processes are expected to have some potential as well in the production of hydrogen from algae

List of Tables

  1. Cost and performance characteristics of various hydrogen production processes

List of Figures

  1. Hydrogenase-Mediated Hydrogen Production
  2. Hydrogen Production Catalyzed by Nitrogenase in Cyanobacteria
  3. Current Methods of Hydrogen Production

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No of Pages : 15

Last Updated : Dec 2011

Price : 25 US $
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