A mini review: photobioreactors for large scale algal cultivation

Abstract

Microalgae cultivation has gained much interest in terms of the production of foods, biofuels, and bioactive compounds and offers a great potential option for cleaning the environment through CO2 sequestration and wastewater treatment. Although open pond cultivation is most affordable option, there tends to be insufficient control on growth conditions and the risk of contamination. In contrast, while providing minimal risk of contamination, closed photobioreactors offer better control on culture conditions, such as: CO2 supply, water supply, optimal temperatures, efficient exposure to light, culture density, pH levels, and mixing rates. For a large scale production of biomass, efficient photobioreactors are required. This review paper describes general design considerations pertaining to photobioreactor systems, in order to cultivate microalgae for biomass production. It also discusses the current challenges in designing of photobioreactors for the production of low-cost biomass.

The algal chloroplast as a synthetic biology platform for production of therapeutic proteins

“…However, this increase in yield needs to be coupled with improvements in phototrophic algal biomass production in order to make the platform commercially competitive. Such improvements will come from a combination of media optimization [66], improvements in photobioreactor (PBR) design [67] and strain domestication, such as selection for reduced light-antenna mutants that show higher productivity in PBRs as a consequence of greater light penetration [68]. Alternatively, it might be more cost-effective to switch to mixotrophic production in PBRs, or heterotrophic cultivation in fermenters, where much higher biomass productivity can be achieved [69].…”

Mixing characteristics, cell trajectories, pressure loss and shear stress of tubular photobioreactor with inserted self‐rotating helical rotors

“…As a promising feedstock for biofuels, microalgae are equipped with unique capacity to form bioethanol and biomethane. Besides, they also play important and useful roles in production of health foods and high value niche products . However, it is still an enormous challenge to product microalgae on a large scale at low cost.…”

Çeşitli yetiştirme ortamlarında ek besin olarak kullanılan peynir altı suyunun biyodizel hammaddesi Chlorella vulgaris’in üretim potansiyeline etkisinin belirlenmesi

“…The illumination source can be placed around the polycarbonate so that the depth of light penetration can easily be adjusted. This allows biomass production even at very low light intensities (Raes et al, 2014;Gupta et al, 2015;Nwoba et al, 2016).…”