Design and Bench-Scale Hydrodynamic Testing of Thin-Layer Wavy Photobioreactors

In a thin-volume photobioreactor where a concentrated suspension of microalgae is circulated throughout the established spatial irradiance gradient, microalgal cells experience a time-variable irradiance. Deploying this feature is the most convenient way of obtaining the so-called flashing light effect, improving biomass production in high irradiance. This work investigates the light flashing features of sloping wavy photobioreactors, a recently proposed type, by introducing and validating a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Two characteristic flow zones (straight top-to-bottom stream and local recirculation stream), both effective toward light flashing, have been found and characterized: a recirculation-induced frequency of 3.7 Hz and straight flow-induced frequency of 5.6 Hz were estimated. If the channel slope is increased, the recirculation area becomes less stable while the recirculation frequency is nearly constant with flow rate. The validated CFD model is a mighty tool that could be reliably used to further increase the flashing frequency by optimizing the design, dimensions, installation, and operational parameters of the sloping wavy photobioreactor.