Influence of Culture Parameters on Biological Hydrogen Production using Green Algae Chlorella Vulgaris

Bio-photolysis to produce the H 2 gas is carried out using algal strain Chlorella vulagris. In this study the effect of various parameters affecting the hydrogen production were investigated to find the optimum conditions that maximize the hydrogen production using standard procedures for experimental design. These parameters include: initial substrate concentration, initial pH and total of nitrogen and phosphate content for the Bold’s Basal culture (BBC) media concentration. Glucose as substrate was studied at varied concentrations (5- 40) g/L and the high production of hydrogen was observed at 10 g/L. A set of tests in this study was performed by varying the initial pH from 6.0 ± 0.2 to 9.0 ± 0.2, The most suitable conditions for hydrogen production in a bio-reactor were observed at pH 8.0 ± 0.2. Total of nitrogen and phosphate content for the (BBC) media concentration were increased by mole (10%, 20% and 30%). Results showed that the maximum production of H 2 with increasing both of components nitrogen and phosphate about 10% concentration. The hydrogen yield (Y P/S ) was about 2.85 mole (mole glucose) -1 at the optimum conditions (10g, 8±0.2, 10%).