GROWTH CONDITIONS OF THE ALGAE SPECIES BIOMASS IN A CONTINUOUS FEEDSTOCK PHOTO BIOREACTOR BY CONTROLLING THE SOLAR THERMAL RADIATION AND CLIMATE TEMPERATURE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Prof., Mechanical Power Eng. Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta Univ., Tanta, Egypt.

2 Assoc. Prof., Mech. Power Eng. Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta Univ., Tanta, Egypt.

3 Dr. Eng., Mech. Power Eng. Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta Univ., Tanta, Egypt.

4 Eng., Mechanical Power Eng. Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta Univ., Tanta, Egypt.

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Algae are one of the important sources of bio-diesel. Micro algae growth rate is
directly affected by the sun light intensity and temperature. However, there is no
available data in the literature concerning the environment temperature control to
optimize the cultivate process of the algae in outdoor conditions. In the present study
the outdoor continuous feedstock photo bioreactor has been designed and built to
control the solar thermal radiation and its effect on the cultivation media temperature.
Thos have been achieved using a new Air Bubble Generation (ABG) system. The
used technique in the current study can enhance the temperature stability within the
optimum range despite of the ambient conditions temperature. The results show that
by increasing the air bubble generation rate the continuous photo bioreactor
temperature distribution was enhanced along the reactor dimension. The optimum
condition of the media PH is found to be 7.5, Na2CO3 concentration of 5 g, the media
width of 25 Cm, media height of 25 Cm and AWR (Air to Water Ratio by volume) of
150.

Keywords