Hydrogen-oxidizing-bacteria for biomass production.

The conversion of molecular hydrogen into microbial biomass using hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria, cultivated in the presence of mineral nutrients and H2 + CO2 as energy and carbon source, has been examined. The transformation of solar energy into electric power by a photovoltaic device and the production of molecular hydrogen from water by electrolysis was considered. The technical recovery of the process should attain 0.02, which gains over the photosynthetic efficiency expressed by the more valuable plants in the better environmental conditions.