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Studies on the scale-up of biomass production with Scenedesmus spp. in flat-plate gas-lift photobioreactors

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Abstract

Microalgae are flagged as next-generation biomass feedstock for sustainable chemicals and fuels, because they actively metabolize the climate gas CO2, do not impact food production, and are not associated with land-use change. Scaling microalgae cultivation processes from lab to pilot scale is key to assessing their economic and ecologic viability. In this work, process performances of two different Scenedesmus species were studied using a 300 L flat-plate gas-lift photobioreactor system (14 m2 photosynthetically active area) equipped with a customized, broad-spectrum LED illumination system. Scaling up of batch processes from laboratory scale (1.8 L, 0.09 m2) to the geometrically equivalent pilot scale resulted in reduced volumetric biomass productivities of up to 11% and reduced areal biomass productivities of up to 7.5% at the pilot scale. Since biofilm formation was solely detected at pilot scale, biofilm most likely impaired scalability. Nevertheless, repeated addition of nutrients (BG-11) at pilot scale resulted in a 13.5 gCDW L−1 biomass concentration within a 15 day process time with S. obtusiusculus at constant incident-photon flux densities of 1400 µmol photons m−2 s−1 and more than 19.5 gCDW L1 after 30 days with Scenedesmus ovalternus SAG 52.80 at constant incident-photon flux densities of 750 µmol photons m−2 s−1. This resulted in areal biomass productivities of 14 gCDW m−2 day−1 (S. ovalternus) and 19 gCDW m−2 day−1 (S. obtusiusculus), respectively.

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Acknowledgements

Funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is gratefully acknowledged (Grant no. 03SF0446A). The TUM Graduate School’s support for Anja Koller is acknowledged, as well. The helpful and constructive discussions with Christina Pfaffinger and Andreas Apel at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Germany are due to special appreciation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Anja Pia Koller, Lara Wolf & Dirk Weuster-Botz

  2. Industrial Biocatalysis, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Thomas Brück

  3. TUM-AlgaeTec Center, Technical University of Munich, Willy-Messerschmitt-Straße 1, 82024, Taufkirchen, Germany

    Anja Pia Koller, Lara Wolf, Thomas Brück & Dirk Weuster-Botz

Authors
  1. Anja Pia Koller
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  2. Lara Wolf
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  3. Thomas Brück
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  4. Dirk Weuster-Botz
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Contributions

All authors contributed to conception and design of the studies, the interpretation of the data, as well as the critical revision and final approval of the manuscript; AK and LW performed the experiments and analyzed the experimental data. AK, DW-B, and TB wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dirk Weuster-Botz.

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Koller, A.P., Wolf, L., Brück, T. et al. Studies on the scale-up of biomass production with Scenedesmus spp. in flat-plate gas-lift photobioreactors. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 213–220 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1859-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1859-y

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