A microBio reactor for hydrogen production.

The purpose of this work was to explore the potential of developing a microfluidic reactor capable of enzymatically converting glucose and other carbohydrates to hydrogen. This aggressive project was motivated by work in enzymatic hydrogen production done by Woodward et al. at OWL. The work reported here demonstrated that hydrogen could be produced from the enzymatic oxidation of glucose. Attempts at immobilizing the enzymes resulted in reduced hydrogen production rates, probably due to buffer compatibility issues. A novel in-line sensor was also developed to monitor hydrogen production in real time at levels below 1 ppm. Finally, a theoretical design for the microfluidic reactor was developed but never produced due to the low production rates of hydrogen from the immobilized enzymes. However, this work demonstrated the potential of mimicking biological systems to create energy on the microscale