Effects of embedding immobilized photosynthetic bacteria cells on hydrogen production capacity

Hydrogen production capacity of immobilized photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) cells using embedding methods was experimentally investigated. The results indicate that agar, alginate and PVA-borate immobilized PSB cells made different improvements to hydrogen production, velocity and volume proportion. Among these embedding materials, alginate immobilized PSB cell was the best to produce hydrogen. Compared with the free PSB cells，the hydrogen production of alginate immobilized PSB cells increased by 15%～40%, average velocity of hydrogen production is the 1.37 times as much as free PSB cells; Followed by agar，the hydrogen production increased by 8%～15%; The hydrogen production of PVA-borate immobilized PSB cells had better effect in the first three days and increased by 10%～20% during the first 72 hours. However, the hydrogen production capacity of polyacrylamide immobilized PSB cells decreased and failed to reach that of the free PSB cells with the increase of time, whose hydrogen production was lower than that of 60% of the free PSB cells, so polyacrylamide is not fit for being used as a embedding material to produce hydrogen.