Hydrogen production using hydrogenase-containing oxygenic photosynthetic organisms
US6989252B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 22, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jan 24, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 22, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S435/946
- WIPO fieldBiotechnology
- WIPO sectorChemistry
Abstract
A reversible physiological process provides for the temporal separation of oxygen evolution and hydrogen production in a microorganism, which includes the steps of growing a culture of the microorganism in medium under illuminated conditions to accumulate an endogenous substrate, depleting from the medium a nutrient selected from the group consisting of sulfur, iron, and/or manganese, sealing the culture from atmospheric oxygen, incubating the culture in light whereby a rate of light-induced oxygen production is equal to or less than a rate of respiration, and collecting an evolved gas. The process is particularly useful to accomplish a sustained photobiological hydrogen gas production in cultures of microorganisms, such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.