Laboratory Scale Photobioreactor Design for Microalgal Biomass Production

Abstract

Microalgal biotechnology is recognized as a productive alternative that could potentially solve the global problems faced today, including the energy crisis, climate change, environmental degradation, and food shortages. This is mainly due to the fact that microalgae are able to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide and directly convert solar energy into chemical energy conserved in biomass through photosynthesis. Microalgal biomass can be used as food and animal feed, as well as evaluated in biofuel production. In this study, a laboratory-scale photobioreactor was designed, and the time-dependent development of different microalgae species in this system was investigated. In terms of microalgal biomass production, it is important that the proposed system has an industrially applicable design with scaleup. In addition, the spherical manifold system used for air supply to simultaneous and parallel photobioreactors is an original design in terms of obtaining comparable results. In experiments in which the development of different algae species was examined with optical density measurements for 32 days, it was seen that algae cultures could be produced with high efficiency. It has been observed that an approximately 50-fold increase can be achieved in the dry matter concentration for the Chlorella protothecoides-2 strain investigated by using the system with increasing from 0.04 g/L to 1.94 g/L at the end of a 20 day.

Keywords

• Biomass
• Biotechnology
• Photobioreactor design
• Microalgae

Mikroalgal Biyokütle Üretimi için Laboratuvar Ölçekli Fotobiyoreaktör Tasarımı

Abstract

Mikroalgal biyoteknoloji, enerji krizi, iklim degǍişikligǍi, çevresel bozulma ve gıda kıtlıgǍı dahil olmak uDžzere guDžnuDžmuDžzde karşılaşılan kuDžresel sorunları, potansiyel olarak çözebilecek verimli bir alternatif olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bunun başlıca nedeni, mikroalglerin büyük miktarda karbondioksiti yakalayarak fotosentez yoluyla doğrudan güneş enerjisini biyokütle içinde muhafaza edilen kimyasal enerjiye dönüştürebilmeleridir. Mikroalgal biyokütle gıda ve hayvan yemi olarak kullanılabildiği gibi biyoyakıt üretiminde de değerlendirilebilir. Bu çalışmada, laboratuvar ölçeğinde bir fotobiyoreaktör tasarımı yapılarak, bu sistemde farklı mikroalg türlerinin zamana bağlı olarak gelişimi incelenmiştir. Önerilen sistemin ölçek büyütmeyle endüstriyel boyutta uygulanabilir bir tasarıma sahip olması, mikroalgal biyokütle üretimi açısından önemlidir. Ayrıca, eş zamanlı ve paralel fotobiyoreaktörlere hava temini için kullanılan küresel manifold sistemi, karşılaştırılabilir sonuçların elde edilmesi açısından özgün bir tasarımdır. Farklı alg türlerinin gelişiminin 32 gün optik yoğunluk ölçümleriyle incelendiği deneylerde, alg kültürlerinin yüksek verimliliklerde üretilebileceği görülmüştür. Kullanılan sistemle incelenen Chlorella protothecoides-2 türü için kuru madde konsantrasyonunda, 20 günün sonunda 0,04 g/L’den 1,94 g/L’ye kadar artmak suretiyle yaklaşık 50 katlık bir artış sağlanabildiği gözlenmiştir.

Keywords

• Biyokütle
• Biyoteknoloji
• Fotobiyoreaktör tasarımı
• Mikroalg

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