Design of raceway ponds for producing microalgae

Abstract

Background: A raceway pond for producing algal fuels must be designed to minimize the energy required for mixing, otherwise the net energy recovery in the biofuel will be low. Results & discussion: Computational fluid dynamics modeling was used to characterize the energy demands for mixing full-scale raceways of various configurations. The locations of the dead zones and the conditions required for eliminating them were identified. The existing geometric configurations of the raceways were compared, to identify the best configuration. Conclusion: An inexpensive raceway configuration with a minimum of three semicircular deflector baffles and a modified end of the central divider was found to be the most energy efficient, while also being able to completely eliminate the dead zones.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Centre of Excellence for Petroleum, Petrochemicals and Advanced Materials, and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Industrial Technology, Bangkok, Thailand; and the Chemical Engineering Practice School, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.