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Evaluation of power consumption of paddle wheel in an open raceway pond

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Abstract

Open raceway ponds are widely adopted in microalgae cultivation. Paddle wheels consume the most part of power during the process of cultivation in open raceway ponds. The configuration of blades directly determines power consumption for paddle wheels. In this work, power consumption of four blades configurations was determined in a bench-scale open raceway pond of 2.2 m2. The effect of blades configuration, the influence of filling levels from 5 to 15 cm and influence of rotational speeds from 7 to 15 r min−1 on shaft power consumption (P S), fluid velocity (U c) and paddle wheel efficiency (η) was investigated. Results demonstrated that flat blades were the most efficient configuration. Higher culture depth led to larger U c, more P s and larger η, especially when blades were not totally immerged in water. Under the same filling level and rotational speed, the value of P S decreases in the order: zigzagged, flat, forward-curved and back-curved, respectively. The zigzagged blades led to a larger U c at the culture depth of 5 cm, while flat and forward-curved blades drove a larger U c when culture depth was higher than 5 cm. The maximum value of η was 0.50 with flat blades at 11 r min−1 and 15 cm of culture depth. Empirical correlations of non-dimensional numbers related to operation parameters and blades geometry for four paddle wheel blades were also proposed.

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Abbreviations

c :

Coefficient of the power curve

D :

Diameter of the paddle wheel (m)

Fr :

Rotational Froud number (Fr = N 2 D/g)

g :

Acceleration gravity, 9.81 m s−2

h b :

Head loss of pond bends (m)

h s :

Head loss of straight channels (m)

H :

Culture depth (m)

L :

Immerged depth (m)

Lo1 :

Open channel Load number (Lo1 = L/D)

Lo2 :

Open channel Load number (Lo2 = H/D)

N :

Rotational speed (r min−1)

N P :

Shaft power number (N P = P/N 3 D 5 ρ)

P :

Net shaft power consumption (W)

P L :

Shaft power loaded with liquid (W)

P 0 :

Shaft power with an empty pond (W)

P S :

Shaft power consumption per unit area (W m−2)

Q :

Channel flow (m3 s−1)

Re :

Rotational Reynolds number (Re = ND 2 ρ/μ)

S :

Area of the open raceway pond bottom (m2)

U c :

Fluid velocity (m s−1)

μ :

Viscosity of water (Pa s)

η :

Paddle wheel efficiency

ρ :

Density of water (kg m−3)

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Acknowledgments

The authors greatly appreciate the support of the National Science and Technology Support Program (2011BAD14B02) and the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KGCX2-EW-309-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Yanxi Li, Qinghua Zhang, Zhihui Wang, Xia Wu & Wei Cong

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Yanxi Li

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  1. Yanxi Li
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  2. Qinghua Zhang
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  3. Zhihui Wang
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  4. Xia Wu
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  5. Wei Cong
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Correspondence to Qinghua Zhang or Wei Cong.

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Li, Y., Zhang, Q., Wang, Z. et al. Evaluation of power consumption of paddle wheel in an open raceway pond. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 1325–1336 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1103-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1103-3

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