Abstract: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dang. is a model species for the study of H₂ production because its hydrogenase has a high activity. Glucose can improve the respiration and lead to oxygen deficiency to induce the expression of hydrogenase if it is added into culture medium. In our study, we added different concentrations of glucose into cultures of C.reinhardtii and observed their effects on cell densities, chlorophyll contents, H₂ productions and O₂ consumptions of C.reinhardtii under light and dark. The highest cell density and chlorophyll content of C.reinhardtii culture was observed when adding 4 g·L^-1 glucose in normal culture. The highest H₂ production was 156 μL·mg^-1 chl when adding 6 g·L^-1 glucose in normal culture, which was 6.7 times higher than that before adding glucose. However, the H₂ production wasn’t improved when adding glucose in the sulfur-deprived culture medium. Our results demonstrated that the H₂ production of C.reinhardtii was improved when adding glucose in the normal culture medium, suggesting the potential of using C.reinhardtii in dealing with waster water containing glucose for H₂ production.

Key words: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, bio-hydrogen production, glucose