Conference article

Fighting climate change and ensuring sustainable development is one of the greatest concerns nowadays. In this regard; energy production from biomass is already a reality and presents tremendous possibilities of use as an alternative source. Among the various technologies; hydrogen production from microalgae is a promising clean energy alternative. Indeed; some unicellular green algae have the ability to produce hydrogen simply in the presence of water and light. However; an important factor governing the efficiency of hydrogen production by microalgae depends on the method of production. Designing a suitable bioreactor is therefore very important in order to control the main production parameters. Hence; a suitable bubble agitation system; with proper bubble size; that keeps algal cells in suspension is proposed. The present work foresees a tentative method of hydrogen production from Chlamydomonas sp; a local alga from the arid area of Adrar (southern Algeria). This is performed in a photobioreactor of the type of a bubble column. It should be noted that a hydrodynamic study of the bubble column has been previously conducted. This has led to a proper choice of the diffuser and an approximate assessment of microalgae culture parameters. Moreover; various process parameters were monitored under a given light intensity; namely: pH; temperature; dissolved oxygen; etc. The observations show massive growth of the algae biomass which indicates a good adaptation of this type of photobioreactors for microalgae production; and subsequently hydrogen production as long as low rates are required.

Renewable Energy; Hydrogen; Microalgae; Photobioreactor; Bubble column