Abstract:
Complicated and changeable weather
conditions and contamination from fungi, protozoa and
bacteria increase difficulties in outdoor microalgae
cultivation. In this paper, outdoor microalgae cultivation
was investigated in Moratuwa city, Western province Sri
Lanka. During December, when both the solar irradiation
and temperature is high, the water spray system
combined two agro shading nets, each with a shading rate
of 40-50% can effectively reduce the temperature to 27±2
0C and control solar irradiation below 13500 lux in the 3
L vertical tubular photobioreactor. Under an initial
biomass density of 0.2 g/l and an atmospheric air flowrate
of 1 vvm, H. pluvialis had a maximum biomass
accumulation of 0.45 g/l and the maximum specific
growth rate of 0.020 g/l.day. In addition, reactor system
and its design exhibited good performance, implying a
potential scale- up opportunity.
