Abstract
This work was aimed at developing an efficient stirred-tank photobioreactor for the large- scale cultivation of photosynthetic cells. A quantitative method of evaluating light conditions inside photobioreactors was first investigated and a light-supply coefficient, which is a product of a light-distribution coefficient and light energy supplied per unit volume, was proposed as an engineering parameter for design and scale-up of photobioreactors. Using this parameter, a method of designing and scaling-up internally illuminated photobioreactors was proposed. A photobioreactor was considered as consisting of units, and an optimum unit size was defined as a reactor volume that is optimally illuminated by a centrally located single light source. A large-scale photobioreactor with the optimum light-supply coefficient can thus be constructed by determining the optimum unit size for the target process and then increasing the number of units in three dimensions. Based on this concept, an optimum unit was constructed and then scaled-up to 20.0 L while maintaining a constant light-supply coefficient. With a 20-W fluorescent lamp, the unit size (diameter) that gave the optimum light-supply coefficient for the cultivation of Chlorella was 0.075 m. Carbon dioxide fixation by Chlorella pyrenoidosa and α-tocopherol production by Euglena gracilis cells in the 20.0-L photobioreactor were the same as those of the single unit.
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© 1998 Plenum Press, New York
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Ogbonna, J.C., Soejima, T., Tanaka, H. (1998). Development of Efficient Large-Scale Photobioreactors. In: Zaborsky, O.R., Benemann, J.R., Matsunaga, T., Miyake, J., San Pietro, A. (eds) BioHydrogen. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35132-2_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35132-2_41
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