Growth kinetics of photosynthetic microorganisms

Abstract

Needless to say, any studies on photosynthetic microorganisms should be accompanied by a proper assessment of microbial absorption of light energy whatever the purposes of these works might be -- biomass production, analysis of excessive growth of blue-green algae in waters, evaluation of light- energy conversion efficiency, etc. In this context, this article begins with a review on the experimental procedures of how to avoid the multipte-scatterings of light before light energy absorbed by microorganisms suspended in liquid could be assessed i n s i t u . This discussion will be augmented by a theoretical consideration in Appendix that has a potential significance in an optimal design of photo-reactor system, if required. However, here in this review paper, the excessive algal growth in still waters attributable to eutrophication would make the point. In order to simulate the emergence of water-bloom in lakes and/or in ponds, quite a few laboratory data on algal growth characteristics, efficiencies of light energy-conversion,and so forth must be madeavailablein coordinationwith observationsin the field. The idea of how to correlatelaboratory data with field observationscould be termed "the study on scale-up" which is, indeed, the heart of the Biochemical Engineering.