Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi there,

I'm doing a project testing mutant algae against regular algae by seeing which will let more light through to be useful in the large scale production of hydrogen. I know that the mutant algae is more effective in doing so, but I want to take my project even further by generating hydrogen through a hydorgen fuel cell. The hydrogen generated from the algae would be used like any other hydrogen. It could be compressed and used in a hydrogen fuel cell to produce electricity. However, I'm unsure how I could utilize the hydrogen produced by the algae and make it into electricity. I would be very thankful if I could get some unique ideas for my project on how I can prove that mutant algae would be better in producing hydrogen using a hydrogen fuel cell.

Sorry for not being able to fully explain my vision. I have no idea if my idea is even possible but it would be great to get some help : ) Please ask me to clarify in any way I can. Thank you

Hello mk19,

I must say that this is a topic that I’m not very familiar with. Maybe some of the other contributors to this forum will have some suggestions. I did a little searching and it appears that algae can produce hydrogen under certain conditions:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 182430.htm

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/11/sus ... ant-algae/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologica ... on_(Algae)

One way of finding out if one algae produces hydrogen more effectively than another would be to build an appropriate reactor, then measure the amounts of hydrogen produced by each kind of algae. An algae/reactor system that directly fed hydrogen to a fuel cell could be used to compare algae types as well. But I think such a thing might not be available just yet.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman