Photobioreactor design for microalgae production through computational fluid dynamics: A review

José C.M. Pires, Maria C.M. Alvim-Ferraz and Fernando G. Martins

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2017, vol. 79, issue C, 248-254

Abstract: Microalgae are seen as the most promising flexible feedstock, being considered the crop of the future. They grow fast, just needing sunlight, carbon dioxide and minerals. They contain high value ingredients, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and others (carotenoids and polymers). Thus, they can be produced for a wide range of markets, including human and animal nutrition, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and biofuels. However, the production cost is still high, limiting their commercial applications to high-valued compounds. The reduction of these costs can be obtained with efficient bioreactor designs, which are able to achieve high areal biomass productivities. In this context, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) may play an important role in the optimization of bioreactor design, analysing the interaction of hydrodynamics, light supply, heat and mass transfer and biological kinetics. This study addresses the recent advances in CFD modelling of both open pond and closed bioreactors.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide uptake; Computational Fluid Dynamics; Growth kinetics; Heat and mass transfer; Light transfer; Microalgae; Photobioreactors; Scale-up (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117307013
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:79:y:2017:i:c:p:248-254

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.064

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().