HYDROGEN PHOTOPRODUCTION FROM CO2-FIXING MICROALGAL BIOMASS - APPLICATION OF LACTIC-ACID FERMENTATION BY LACTOBACILLUS-AMYLOVORUS

Intact and/or freeze-thawed microalgal biomass of Chlamydomonas reinha rdtii, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, and Dunaliella tertiolecta were liquefie d using a starch-hydrolyzing lactic acid bacterium, Lactobacillus amyl ovorus, in order to obtain an ideal substrate for H-2 production by th e photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides RV. Starch accumula ted in the algal biomass was converted to H-2 with a high, conversion yield of 5 mol H-2/mol of starch glucose. In this system, the rigid al gal cell wall structure could be degraded without the need for any phy sicochemical or enzymic pretreatment; L. amylovorus appeared to play a role in this degradation.