Linde AG, an international technology group, is sponsoring research into the biological production of hydrogen by microalgae. Linde Gas and Engineering, one of the group’s two primary lines of business, is focusing strongly on hydrogen production.

The research team at the Christian-Albrecht-Universität (CAU) in Kiel is studying the ability of cyanobacteria and single-cell green algae to produce hydrogen through photosynthesis. The researchers in Kiel have succeeded in genetically modifying these microorganisms in such a way that the amount of hydrogen released—usually too miniscule for industrial usage—is multiplied. (A presentation by Dr. Rüdiger Schulz-Friedrich, the team leader, outlining some of their research, mechanisms and results is here, but it is in German.)

With this project, we are demonstrating our long-term, sustained commitment to the furtherance of a hydrogen economy: it is essential that we begin actively thinking today about life after oil.

—Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, CEO of Linde AG

Linde AG, with revenues of nearly €9 billion in 2003, operates Germany’s only hydrogen liquefaction plant.