A newly designed and constructed LED illumination device for commercial cylindrical bioreactors is presented for application in microalgal cultivations and investigation of growth kinetics. An ideally illuminated volume is achieved by focusing the light toward the center of the reactor and thereby compensating the mutual shading of the cells. The relevant biomass concentration for homogeneous illumination depending on reactor radius was determined by light distribution measurements for Chlamydomonas to 0.2 g/L (equal 0.435 optical density at 750 nm). It is shown that cultivation experiments with the newly designed illumination device operated in batch mode can be successfully applied for determination of growth rates and photo conversion efficiencies. The exact knowledge of physiological reactions of specific strain(s) and the estimation of relevant parameters for scale‐up can be used for construction of economic pilot plant photobioreactors. The determination of light‐dependent kinetics of growth and product formation is the first necessary step to achieve this. A wide variety of different parameters can be examined like the effect of different illumination conditions (light intensity, frequency of day/night cycles, flashing light, light color…) and thereby for each single application specific, relevant, and interesting parameters will be examined.
The Variety of Microalgae Applications as a Renewable ResourceOver the last decades the importance of the biotechnological use of microalgae has significally increased. Microalgae are foreseen as a source of new products and solutions with enormous potential. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the current technological and commercial situation regarding the production of valuable products from microalgae. With well-established applications in the field of cosmetics, human health and animal nutrition, the market still expands towards implementation of new mass products for food and feed industry, fine chemicals or bio-fuels. To improve the economic efficiency of the biotechnological processes with microalgae and to establish them as a relevant producer in the middle to low value products market, further technological development is required.
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