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Study of hydrodynamic characteristics in tubular photobioreactors

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Abstract

In this work, the hydrodynamic characteristics in tubular photobioreactors with a series of helical static mixers built-in were numerically investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The influences of height and screw pitch of the helical static mixer and fluid inlet velocity on the cell trajectories, swirl numbers and energy consumption were examined. In order to verify the actual results for cultivation of microalgae, cultivation experiments of freshwater Chlorella sp. were carried out in photobioreactor with and without helical static mixer built-in at the same time. It was shown that with built-in helical static mixer, the mixing of fluid could be intensified, and the light/dark cycle could also be achieved which is of benefit for the growth of microalgae. The biomass productivity of Chlorella sp. in tubular photobioreactor with helical static mixer built-in was 37.26 % higher than that in the photobioreactor without helical static mixer.

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Abbreviations

C 1, C 2 :

Coefficient in \( k - \varepsilon \) equation

C D :

Drag force coefficient

d :

Static mixer thinness (m)

d p :

Particle diameter (m)

D :

Diameter of tubular photobioreactor (m)

D m :

Molecular diffusivity (m2/s)

F D :

Drag force (N)

h :

Height of the static mixer (m)

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2)

L :

Length of tubular photobioreactor (m)

P :

Pressure (Pa m3/kg)

R :

Radial coordinate (m)

Rep :

Reynolds number

s :

Screw pitch (m)

S :

Source term

Sn:

Swirl number

t :

Time (s)

u :

Liquid velocity (m/s)

u p :

Particle velocity (m/s)

v :

Inlet velocity (m/s)

x :

x coordinate (m)

y :

y coordinate (m)

z :

z coordinate (m)

\( \varepsilon \) :

Turbulent energy dissipation rate (W/kg)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

\( \sigma_{k} ,\sigma_{\varepsilon } \) :

Coefficient in \( k - \varepsilon \) equation

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Acknowledgments

The authors greatly appreciate the support of the Knowledge Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KGCX2-YW-223-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Qinghua Zhang, Xia Wu, Shengzhang Xue, Kehong Liang & Wei Cong

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  1. Qinghua Zhang
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  2. Xia Wu
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Correspondence to Qinghua Zhang.

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Zhang, Q., Wu, X., Xue, S. et al. Study of hydrodynamic characteristics in tubular photobioreactors. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 36, 143–150 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-012-0769-2

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