Simulation of a novel tubular microalgae photobioreactor with aerated tangent inner tubes: improvements in mixing performance and flashing‐light effects
Open accessAbstract
At present, large-scale and high-efficiency microalgal cultivation is the key to realizing the technology for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and bioresource recovery. Meanwhile, tubular photobioreactors (PBRs) have great potential for microalgal cultivation due to their high productivity. To improve the mixing performance and flashing-light effect, a novel tube PBR with the inner tube tangential to the outer tube was developed, whose radial aeration pores are situated along the length of the inner tube. The direction of aeration, aeration rate, light/dark cycle period (L/D), light-time ratio, average turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and degree of synergy between the velocity and direction of the light field in the PBR were optimized by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and field synergy theory. The results show that a downwards aeration direction of 30° and an aeration rate of 0.7 vvm are the most conducive to reducing the dead zone and improving the light/dark cycle frequency. Compared to the concentric double-tube PBR, the light/dark cycle frequency and light time of the tangent double-tube PBR increased by 78.2% and 36.2% to 1.8 Hz and 47.8%, respectively, and the TKE was enhanced by 48.1% from 54 to 80 cm2·s−2. Meanwhile, field synergy theory can be extended and applied to the design of tubular microalgae PBRs, and the average synergy of the light and velocity gradients across the cross-section increased by 38% to 0.69. The tangential inner tube aeration structure generated symmetrical vertical vortices between the light and dark areas in the PBR, which significantly improved the mixing performance and flashing-light effect. This novel design can provide a more suitable microenvironment for microalgal cultivation and is promising for bioresource recovery applications and improving the yield of microalgae.
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IoT connects smart sensors to real-time analytics platforms, allowing dynamic adjustment of parameters such as temperature, pH, CO2 concentration, and light intensity, thereby converting the photobioreactor into a responsive and intelligent system.
“IoT, in turn, connects smart sensors to real-time analytics platforms, allowing the dynamic adjustment of parameters such as temperature, pH, CO2 concentration, and light intensity, thereby converting the PBR into a responsive and intelligent system (Cui et al., 2020; Luzi and McHardy, 2022).”
From Microalgae biotechnology and its role in sustainable and healthy food design (2025) · cites this paper as Cui et al., 2020
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- Authors
- Cui, X., Yang, J., Feng, Y., & Zhang, W.
- Affiliations
- Tianjin University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Yang, Junhong
- Venue
- Archaea
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-07-10
- Volume
- 2020
- Pages
- 1-16
- ISSN
- 1472-3646 (ISSN-L)
- 1472-3654
- PMC
- PMC7372955
- OpenAlex
- W3041316470
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 0.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Archaea (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (13JCYBJC19000)
- Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy, MOE (13JCYBJC19000)
- State Key Laboratory of Engines of Tianjin University (13JCYBJC19000)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Fluid Dynamics and Mixing
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control
- Keywords
- tubular photobioreactor, microalgae cultivation, aeration, mixing performance, field synergy theory, light-dark cycle, turbulent kinetic energy, vertical vortex, dead zone, air flow rate
- MeSH terms
- Computer Simulation, Light, Oxygen, Photoperiod, Biomass, Hydrodynamics, Microalgae, Photobioreactors
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