Cyanobacteria and Photosynthetic Bacteria: Metabolic Engineering of Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Photobiological hydrogen production are light driven processes that either use water as a source of electrons cyanobacteria, or organic acids, during photo fermentative hydrogen production by purple no sulfur photosynthetic bacteria. Hydrogen evolution in these organisms is largely catalyzed by nitrogenase, with ATP being required. Although hydrogen is also produced by dark fermentation, photobiological hydrogen production has the advantage that it is driven by solar energy conversion. On the other hand, photobiological hydrogen production also suffers from practical limitations: sensitivity of hydrogenase to oxygen, hydrogen consumption driven by respiration, competition for electrons with carbon dioxide fixation, saturation of hydrogen production at low light intensities, as well as an incomplete understanding of the metabolic networks involved in hydrogen metabolism and the unavailability of genetic and molecular tools for improvement in many species. Here we summarize the use of metabolic engineering to increase photobiological hydrogen production.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 18, 2015
Accession Number
AD1012938

Entities

People

  • Dipankar Ghosh
  • Patrick C Hallenbeck

Organizations

  • United States Air Force Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Bacteria
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Cyanobacteria
  • Energy
  • Energy Storage
  • Engineering
  • Escherichia Coli
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Genetics
  • Metabolic Engineering
  • Microbial Genome
  • Microbiology
  • Microorganisms
  • Organic Acids

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Chemistry (specifically Chemical Fluorescence)
  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Microbial Pathology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Microelectronics