Algae Growth 9-5-07

CO2 requirements for Growth Algae is about 50% carbon=>1.8kg CO2 to produce 1 kg algae Concentration of CO2 in bulk should be around 65μM with a pH=8.5 for some marine and saline water diatoms.

Oxygen inhibition of the growth Oxygen levels above air saturation (0.2247 mol O2/m3) could inhibit. Elevated conc. of O2 combined with high levels of irradiance can lead to photo-oxidation. In practice the minimum feasible level of dissolved O2 is 21% of air saturation since the nutrient feeds tends to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere.

Patent Review Most patents on PBR are for tubular air-lift type PBRs. A couple of plate-like PBRs have be patented. Only one membrane PBR, the OH PBR has been patented. Most of the PBRs were designed for the removal of contaminants like heavy metals and CO2, a few were designed to make fine chemicals.

BIOKING’s Algae Oil

BIOKING’s Biodiesel

Future Work Develop growth model based on CO2, O2 and light intensity. Will probably be a modification of the model used by Greenfuel to apply to a membrane PBR. Need to choose algae strain to use in model, probably will be Botryococcus braunii ~40-60% oil. Find the answers to the rest of the questions Prof. Ng sent.