The current state of research on photosynthetic hydrogen production by microalgae to create alternative bioenergetics is reviewed. Data on the mechanisms of hydrogen evolution by blue-green and unicellular green microalgae and the enzymes catalyzing these processes are given. The ability to produce hydrogen in different amounts is developed in the process of adaptation of microalgal cultures to stress conditions. Factors stimulating the yield of hydrogen, in particular, the influence of modes of illumination, addition of respiratory substrates, reducing agents, inhibitors of electron transport, as well as the results of molecular H₂ photoproduction by strains from Culture Collection of algae of the Kholodny Institute of Botany NASU are analyzed. Prospects for the use of microalgae as transformers of solar energy in molecular hydrogen are considered.

Keywords: microalgae, H₂ photoproduction, hydrogenase, nitrogenase

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