Effect of carbon dioxide and sunlight on algae biomass produced in laminar photobioreactor

Abstract

This work measured the influence of CO₂ supply and photosynthetically active radiation on microalgae production in the laminar photobioreactor. In order to accomplish this, the production and concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus in the biomass collected from each of the 36 subdivisions of the system was analyzed weekly. Additionally, productive and energetic efficiencies were determined by estimating biomass production. The artificial CO₂ supply affected biomass production, increasing the productivity from 3.9 to 27.0%. The photosynthetically active radiation was related to the production of biomass, which varied up to 60.5%, producing between 1.42 and 2.28 g m^-2 d^-1. The nitrogen concentration in the biomass was not influenced by any of the evaluated factors; nevertheless, the phosphorus was influenced by both factors. The productive and energetic efficiencies had similar influence, ranging from 0.28 to 0.44 g mol^-1 and from 2.12 to 3.34%, respectively.

Keywords: Chlorella; energetic efficiency; microalgae