Contributions for efficient microalgae biomass culturephotobioreactor design, operation and harvesting

Abstract

This thesis is focused on the microalgae biomass production efficiency through the intervention in several key steps of the two main parts of the process: culturing and harvesting. In spite of the wide range of applications of the microalgal biomass, this work targets its viability as oil producers for biofuel making; consequently the developed theoretical and experimental work was referred to the enhancement of lipid productivity and quality. Specifically, the topics faced in this work are photobioreactor design by means of the evaluation of the feasibility of a novel photobiorreactor, as well as continuous operation, harvesting by means of auto-flocculation and medium reuse that were experimentally tackled.