Experimental study on microalgae cultivation in novel photobioreactor of concentric double tubes with aeration pores along tube length direction

ABSTRACT

Microalgae have been identified as a superior feedstock for biodiesel production and varied tubular photobioreactors are developed for high efficient and scale-up microalgae cultivation. This article presented a novel concentric double tubes using aeration through radial pores along the length direction of inner tube. Experiments on microalgae cultivation were carried out in the novel photobioreactor, and two control groups including concentric double tubes with axial aeration at both ends and common tubular. The biomass productivity of novel photobioreactor increased by 43.6% and 107.4%, respectively, compared with concentric double tubes with axial aeration at both ends and common tubular without aeration. The values of pH shifted from 7.5 to 9.0 for novel photobioreactor, but 7.5 to 8.8 for common tubular, and 7.5 to 9.6 for concentric double tubes with axial aeration. The dissolved oxygen concentration fluctuated between 6.0 and 7.0 mg·L⁻¹ for novel photobioreactor, but rose from 6.6 to 10.2 mg·L⁻¹ for the common tubular, and 6.9 to 8.1 mg·L⁻¹ for the concentric with axial aeration. Results show that the aeration style of novel photobioreactor can make efficient local mixing and maintain smaller range of pH and lower level of dissolved oxygen in case of higher biomass concentration. Moreover, compared with the two control groups, the novel concentric double tubes have advantages on the light/dark cycle frequency, which may be benefit for microalgae cultivation. The novel concentric double tubes presented in this work can give some inspiration for high efficiency microalgae cultivation.

KEYWORDS:

• Microalgae cultivation
• concentric double tubes
• pH shift
• dissolved oxygen
• light/dark cycle

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the Tianjin talent development special support program for high-level innovation and entrepreneurship team for supporting on research conditions; Professors Hui Xie and Shaohui Yang from Tianjin University, and Professor Dengying Liu from the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, for their helpful comments during this work.

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin in China (Grant No. 13JCYBJC19000).

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin in China (Grant No. 13JCYBJC19000).