Design and Performance Parameters of Photobioreactors

Abstract

The design and development of photobioreac-tors is very important because the bioreactor is the technical centerpiece of the production of microalgae biomass. Apart from maximum production, other factors such as geometric and hydrodynamic parameters, measured per-formance criteria and mode and stability of operation, and cost effectiveness of the biore-actor need to be optimized. Clear criteria are missing for an assessment such as is needed to establish a uniform basis of data for sustain-ability and life-cycle assessments. Although several reactors will be presented in the fol-lowing paper, the primary objective is to set the framework for such an assessment of pho-tobioreactors. This begins in design features, but also goes beyond this to a definition of per-formance parameters, whose measurement is required and which ultimately determine whether the use of a reactor is successful.