Flashing light effect on microalgae could significantly improve the light efficiency and biomass productivity of microalgae. In this paper, the baffles were introduced into the traditional flat plate photobioreactor so as to enhance the flashing light effect of microalgae. Making Chlorella sp. as the model microalgae, the effect of light intensity and inlet velocity on the biomass concentration of Chlorella sp. and light efficiency were evaluated. The results showed that, when the inlet velocity was 0.16 m/s, with the increase of light intensity, the cell dry weight of Chlorella sp. increased and light efficiency decreased. With increasing the inlet velocity, the cell dry weight of Chlorella sp. and light efficiency both increased under the condition of 500 μmol/(m2 x s) light intensity. The cell dry weight of Chlorella sp. cultivated in the novel flat plate photobioreactor was 39.23% higher than that of the traditional one, which showed that the flashing light effect of microalgae could be improved in the flat plate photobioreactor with inclined baffles built-in.
Biomass ; Chlorella ; growth & development ; Culture Techniques ; instrumentation ; Light ; Microalgae ; growth & development ; Photobioreactors

The knowledge of oxygen evolution characteristics, which is a symbol of photosynthetic activity, under various light conditions is important for photobioreactor design and operation. In this study, we constructed a device to investigate oxygen evolution characteristics of Spirulina platensis under two different light regimes: 1) continuous illumination of various light intensities (14-6 500 micromol/(m2 x s)); 2) medium frequency L/D cycles of four different light intensities (69, 505, 1 330, 4 265 micromol/(m2s)). Light limited region, intermediate region, light saturated region and light inhibited region of light intensity were recognized according to their relationship with oxygen evolution rate (OER) under continuous illumination. Investigation of S. platensis under L/D cycles showed whether photosynthetic efficiency could be increased with increasing L/D frequency largely depended on the light intensity applied. The higher the light intensity, the larger the photosynthetic enhancement could be expected with the increase of L/D frequency. The largest light integration effect was found under L/D cycles of high light intensity (4 265 micromol/(m2 x s)) and medium light fraction (k = 0.6), while light integration effect was totally absent under low light fractions (k < 0.2). We also discussed their implications to the practical aspects of microalgae cultivation.
Light ; Oxygen ; metabolism ; Photobioreactors ; Photosynthesis ; physiology ; Spirulina ; metabolism