• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.23-28
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• 2000

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.393-400
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• 2005

Hydrogen($H_2$) as a clean, and renewable energy carrier will be served an important role in the future energy economy. Several biological $H_2$ production processes are known and currently under development, ranging from direct bio-photolysis of water by green algae, indirect bio-photolysis by cyanobacteria including the separated two stage photolysis using the combination of green algae and photosynthetic microorganisms or green algae alone, dark anaerobic fermentation by fermentative bacteria, photo-fermentation by purple bacteria, and water gas shift reaction by photosynthetic or fermentative bacteria. In this paper, biological $H_2$ production processes, that are being explored in fundamental and applied research, are reviewed.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2009

Among various microscopic organisms producing photobiological hydrogen, cyanobacteria have long been recognized as the promising biological agents for hydrogen economy in 21 century. For photobiological production of hydrogen energy, marine unicellular $N_2$-fixing cyanobacteria have been evaluated as an ideal subgroup of Cyanophyceae. To develope the hydrogen production technology using unicellular $N_2$-fixing cyanobacteria, 3 important factors are pre-requisite: 1) isolation of the best strain from marine natural environment, 2) exploration on the strain-specific optimal conditions for the photobiological hydrogen production, and finally 3) application of the molecular genetic tools to improve the natural ability of the strain to produce hydrogen. Here we reviewed the recent research & development to commercialize photobiological hydrogen production technology, and suggest that intensive R&D during next 10-15 years should be imperative for the future Korean initiatives in the field of the photobiological hydrogen production technology using photosynthetic marine unicellular cyanobacterial strains.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2004

Purple non-sulfur bacteria, Rhodobacter sphaeroides KD131 grew to reach the maximum cell concentration in 45 hrs of incubation in the synthetic media containing (NH4)2SO4, L-aspartic acid and succinic acid as the carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, at 30oC under 8 klux irradiance using halogen lamp. The strain produced hydrogen from the middle of the logarithmic growth phase and continued until the cell growth leveled out. The strain grew and produced hydrogen under the irradiance of 3-30 klux, but cell growth was inhibited over 100 klux. In addition, anaerobic/light culture condition was better than the aerobic/dark on the hydrogen production. Among various photo-bioreactors examined, the flat-vertical reactor manufactured using clear acrylic plastic material showed the best hydrogen production rate at the given culture condition.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 1998

Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 produced hydrogen from glucose rapidly for the first 24 hrs of culture under the anaerobic and photosynthetic conditions and then ceased the hydrogen production because of the accumulation of organic acids such as acetic acid and formic acid in the culture broth, decreasing the pH to 4.2-4.5. Only 43% and 73% of glucose in the culture were consumed even after 6 days of incubation by R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1, respectively. The hydrogen production and glucose consumption, however, were substantially increased when the pH of the culture was adjusted to 6.8-7.0: Hydrogen production continues even after 10 days of culture and glucose was consumed completely after 2.5 and 4.5 days by R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1, respectively, Furthermore, the bacteriochlorophyll contents in R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 were increased by 44 and 9 folds and the cell concentrations by 10 and 2.5 folds, respectively, after 7 days of culture. R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 also produced hydrogen from acetic, lactic, butyric and malic acids under the anaerobic and photosynthetic conditions even though the amounts of hydrogen produced were lower than that from glucose. The results of this experiment indicate that under the anaerobic and synthetic conditions R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 might use the NADH oxidation mediated by ferredoxin and hydrogenase to evolve hydrogen from glucose for the first 24 hrs and then the organic acids produced were used as electron donners for the production of hydrogen in the nitrogen-limited condition.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.529-536
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• 2008

Cyanobacteria Synechocystis PCC 6803 or the extracted thylakoid membrane from this strain was appled to photosynthetic bio-electrochemical fuel cell(PBEFC) for the production of hydrogen under the illumination of 48Klux using halogen lamp. PBEFC was composed of anode, cathode and membrane between them. Electrode material was carbon paper while electron mediator and receptor were added phenazine methosulfate(PMS) and potassium ferricyanide respectively. When water and 50 mM tricine buffer and $300{\mu}M$ PMS were added to the anode under the light condition, PBEFC produced the current density $4.4{\times}10^{-5}\;mA/cm^2$, $1.4{\times}10^{-4}\;mA/cm^2$ and $2.4{\times}10^{-4}\;mA/cm^2$, respectively. And the addition of the thylakoid membrane to the system increased current density to $1.3{\times}10^{-3}\;mA/cm^2$. Two times increase of the thylakoid membrane into the anode doubled the current density to $2.6{\times}10^{-3}\;mA/cm^2$. But the current density was not increased proportionally to the amount of thylakoid membrane increased. The system was unstable to measure the electricity output due to the foam production in the anode. Addition of triton X-100 and tween 80 stabilized the system to measure the electricity output but the current density was not increased higher than $8.4{\times}10^{-4}\;mA/cm^2$ and $2.3{\times}10^{-3}\;mA/cm^2$. When the thylakoid membrane was substituted to Synechocystis PCC 6803 cells of four-day culture which has chlorophyll contents $20.5{\mu}g/m{\ell}$, maximum current density was $1.3{\times}10^{-3}\;mA/cm^2$ with $1\;k{\Omega}$ resistance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.400-406
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• 2012

To improve the hydrogen yield from biological fermentation of organic wastewater, a co-culture system of dark- and photo-fermentation bacteria was investigated. In a pure-culture system of the dark-fermentation bacterium Clostridium butyricum, a pH of 6.25 was found to be optimal, resulting in a hydrogen production rate of 18.7 ml-$H_2/l/h$. On the other hand, the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides could produce the most hydrogen at 1.81mol-$H_2/mol$-glucose at pH 7.0. The maximum specific growth rate of R. sphaeroides was determined to be 2.93 $h^{-1}$ when acetic acid was used as the carbon source, a result that was significantly higher than that obtained using either glucose or a mixture of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). Acetic acid best supported R. sphaeroides cell growth but not hydrogen production. In the co-culture system with glucose, hydrogen could be steadily produced without any lag phase. There were distinguishable inflection points in a plot of accumulated hydrogen over time, resulting from the dynamic production or consumption of VFAs by the interaction between the dark- and photo-fermentation bacteria. Lastly, the hydrogen production rate of a repeated fed-batch run was 15.9 ml-$H_2/l/h$, which was achievable in a sustainable manner.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.430-436
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• 1992

Hydrogen evolution by mixed fermentation of Clostn"dium butyn"cum and photosynthetic bacteria which were capable of consuming clostridial metabolites and evolving hydrogen was investigated. Acetate and butyrate formed from anaerobic clostridial fermentation were efficiently utilized by Rhodopseudomonas sPhaeroides K-7. For complete bioconversion of clostridial metabolites such as acetate and butyrate into hydrogen, mixed culture of both anaerobic organisms forming molecular hydrogen was performed. By the mixed culture, the yield of hydrogen production increased by 20 to 75% and the levels of clostridial metabolites such as acetate, butyrate decreased in the fermentation broth. Influence of cell mixing ratio. mixing time and inoculum level on hydrogen evolution by mixed culture were examined. And then cometabolic pattern compared with in pure culture was observed as time course.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 1986

Many photosynthetic bacteria capable of hydrogen production were isolated from samples of mud flats of paddy field collected in Kim Hae and Dae Jeo. A strain 230 was selected for the high capability of hydrogen evolution. As the results of examination in physiological, morghological and cultural characteristics, the strain 230 was identified as Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 1992

The Photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides strain B6 was irnmobilized on agar gel. The optimum concentration of agar for hydrogen production was 2% (w/v). Maximum rates of hydrogen production by immobilized (300 ml of gel; 2.85 rng dry cells/ml) and free cells (1l culture; 0.87 mg dry cells/ml) were 47.5 and 48.0 ml/hr/culture, respectively. However, when both cultures were fed by 10 mmoles of lactate as limited electron donor at the later period of incubation, the activity of hydrogen production by free cells was significantly decreased but, immobilized cells continued hydrogen production with almost the same initial rate. Wc examined hydrogen production by immobilized cells of strain B6 under periodic illumination for 12 hr-intervals. When the culture was periodically fed by basal medium containing 9.3 rnmoles of DL-lactate and 1.86 mmoles of L-glutamate as consumed electron donor and nitrogen source, respectively, for every one liter of hydrogen produced, hydrogen was evolved continuously with the average rate of 510 ml/day/300 ml gel (2.9 rng dry cellslml) during the incubation time for 228 hr.