title: Improving performance of flat-plate photobioreactors by installation of novel internal mixers optimized with computational fluid dynamics.
abstract: A novel mixer was developed to improve the performance of flat-plate photobioreactors (PBRs). The effects of mixer were theoretically evaluated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) according to radial velocity of fluid and light/dark cycles within reactors. The structure parameters, including the riser width, top clearance, clearance between the baffles and walls, and number of the chambers were further optimized. The microalgae culture test aiming at validating the simulated results was conducted indoor. The results showed the maximum biomass concentrations in the optimized and archetype reactors were 32.8% (0.89 g L(-1)) and 19.4% (0.80 g L(-1)) higher than that in the control reactor (0.67 g L(-1)). Therefore, the novel mixer can significantly increase the fluid velocity along the light attenuation and light/dark cycles, thus further increased the maximum biomass concentration. The PBRs with novel mixers are greatly applicable for high-efficiency cultivation of microalgae.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China. Electronic address: jkehuang@163.com.
authors.forename: Jianke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Minxi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiangguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China. Electronic address: ygli@ecust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuanguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: JiaxingZeyuan Bio-products Co., Ltd., Jiaxing 314007, PR China.
authors.forename: Ronghua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Guomin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D008027:Light; D058086:Microalgae / Q000254:growth & development; D058433:Photobioreactors; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Computational fluid dynamics; Flat-plate photobioreactors; Light/dark cycles; Mixer; Photosynthetic efficiency