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Overcoming shear stress of microalgae cultures in sparged photobioreactors
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Overcoming shear stress of microalgae cultures in sparged photobioreactors

Maria J. Barbosa, Hadiyanto and René H. Wijffels
Biotechnology and bioengineering, Vol.85(1), pp.78-85
01/05/2004
DOI: 10.1002/bit.10862
PMID: 14705014
url
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/overcoming-shear-stress-of-microalgae-cultures-in-sparged-photobiView
Open Access

Abstract

In the present work we identified and quantified the effect of hydrodynamic stress on two different microalgae strains, Dunaliella tertiolecta and D. salina, cultivated in bench-scale bubble columns. The cell death rate constant increased with increasing gas-entrance velocity at the sparger. Dunaliella salina was slightly more sensitive than D. tertiolecta. The critical gas-entrance velocities were ∼ 50 and 30 m s-1 for D. tertiolecta and D. salina, respectively. The effects of gas-flow rate, culture height, and nozzle diameter on the death rate constant were also studied. From these results it was concluded that bubble rising and bubble bursting are not responsible for cell death. Regarding nozzle diameter, small nozzles were more detrimental to cells. The bubble formation at the sparger was found to be the main event leading to cell death. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals Inc.
bubble column cell death hydrodynamic stress microalgae

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