Hydrogen is starting to move from a fuel of the future to an energy carrier of the present, promising greatly reduced pollution and increased fuel efficiency. The fundamental challenge in establishing hydrogen as the future energy is the clean, renewable, and environmentally friendly generation of large quantities of hydrogen gas. In this context, unicellular green algae have come to the focal point of R&D in producing hydrogen as energy source because large quantities of hydrogen can be potentially generated from sunlight and water. In comparison with world-wide exclusive use of freshwater green algae for photobiological hydrogen production, the aim of this project is to develop a marine green algae-based, cost-effective system for sustained H2 photoproduction, by utilizing seawater as the substrate and solar light as the source of energy. The researches are focused on (1) elucidation of the hydrogen metabolism in marine green algae by a range of engineering and molecular tools including metabolic analysis, genetic manipulation and selection of mutant strains; (2) selection and breeding of high hydrogen-producing algal strains by mutation and genetic manipulation; (3) design and optimization of novel cost-effective photo-bioreactor with high light conversion efficiency for both high-density cell cultivation and photo-hydrogen production; (4) develop and optimization of novel metabolic manipulation techniques to improve the hydrogen yield and productivity; (5) bioprocess integration and intensification of high density algal cultivation, hydrogen photo-production and hydrogen utilization at laboratory scale for demonstration.

This research project is the first effort contributing to this area of biohydrogen production in China.