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Design of an airlift loop bioreactor and pilot scales studies with fluidic oscillator induced microbubbles for growth of a microalgae Dunaliella salina Accepted.pdf (892.91 kB)

Design of an airlift loop bioreactor and pilot scales studies with fluidic oscillator induced microbubbles for growth of a microalgae Dunaliella salina

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posted on 2014-05-23, 12:43 authored by William B. Zimmerman, Mohammed Zandi, Hemaka BandulasenaHemaka Bandulasena, Vaclav Tesar, D. James Gilmour, Kezhan Ying
This study was conducted to test the feasibility of growing microalgae on steel plant exhaust gas, generated from the combustion of offgases from steel processing, which has a high CO content. Two field trials of batch algal biomass growth, mediated by microbubble transfer processes in an airlift loop bioreactor showed only steady growth of biomass with 100% survival rate. The gas analysis of CO uptake in the 2200L bioreactor showed a specific uptake rate of 0.1g/L/h, an average 14% of the CO available in the exhaust gas with a 23% composition of CO. This uptake led to a steady production of chlorophyll and total lipid constituency in the bioreactor, and an accelerating exponential growth rate of biomass, with a top doubling time of 1.8days. The gas analysis also showed anti-correlation of CO uptake and O production, which along with the apparent stripping of the O to the equilibrium level by the microbubbles, strongly suggests that the bioreactor is not mass transfer limited, nor O inhibited. Removing O inhibition results in high growth rates and high density of biomass. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Citation

ZIMMERMAN, W.B. ... et al, 2011. Design of an airlift loop bioreactor and pilot scales studies with fluidic oscillator induced microbubbles for growth of a microalgae Dunaliella salina. Applied Energy, 88 (10), pp. 3357 - 3369

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2011

Notes

This article was published in the journal, Applied Energy [© Elsevier]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.02.013

ISSN

0306-2619

Language

  • en