Microfluidic microalgal bioreactor for high-throughput screening of CO2 concentration conditions on microalgae growth

Abstract

This paper presents a high-throughput microfluidic bioreactor capable of culturing and screening microalgal strains under different CO2 envionmental conditions. The present bioreactor consists of a microfluidic microalgae culture unit, a CO2 concentration gradient generation (CGG) unit, and an in-line optical detection unit for quantifying cell growth. A gas semipermeable membrane is designed between the microfluidic culture and CGG units to control mass transport of CO2 into the cell culture channels. To validate the workability of this device, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain CC620 was cultured in the bioreactor and its growth rate under different CO2 concentrations was quantified. In-line monitoring of cell growth is achieved using both light intensity measurement and colorimetric detection. The present bioreactor system will have a great potential to accelerate microalgae research.