Light irradiance and spectral distribution effects on cyanobacterial hydrogen production

Light is an essential energy source for photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Changes in both light irradiance and spectral distribution will affect their photosynthetic productivity. Compared to the light irradiance, little investigations have been carried out on the effect of light spectra towards cyanobacterial hydrogen production. Hence, this work aims to investigate the effects of both light quantity and quality on biohydrogen productivity of heterocystous cyanobacterium, A. variabilis. Under white light condition, the highest hydrogen production rate of 31 mu mol H-2 mg chl a(-1) h(-1) was achieved at 70 mu E m(-2) s(-1). When the experiment was repeated at the same light irradiance but different light spectra of blue, red and green, the accumulations of hydrogen were significantly lower than the white light except for blue light. As the light irradiance was increased to 350 mu E m(-2) s(-1), the accumulated hydrogen under the blue light doubled that of the white light. Besides that, an unusual prolongation of the hydrogen production up to 120 h was observed. The results obtained suggest that blue light could be the most desirable light spectrum for cyanobacterial hydrogen production.