Interaction between CO2-mass transfer, light availability, and hydrodynamic stress in the growth of Phaeodactylum tricornutum in a concentric tube airlift photobioreactor
✍ Scribed by A. Contreras; F. García; E. Molina; J. C. Merchuk
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 175 KB
- Volume
- 60
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0006-3592
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum was grown in a concentric tube airlift photobioreactor. A maximum specific growth rate of 0.023 h -1 was obtained using a superficial gas velocity around 0.055 m/s. Lower or higher gas flow rates limited the culture performance. To establish if the observed limitation was due to CO 2 or to the photosynthetically active irradiance, characteristic times for mixing, mass transfer and CO 2 consumption, and the photon flux absorbed by the culture were analyzed. The CO 2 -gradients in the culture were shown to be responsible for the limitation during the exponential growth phase, and both CO 2 and light irradiance were limiting in the linear growth phase. The decrease in specific growth rate relative to the maximum was found to be related to the specific gas-liquid interfacial area, the length scale of the microeddies and the shear rate.