Photobiological Production of Hydrogen from Spirulina for Fueling Fuel Cells

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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.

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