Dataset on economic analysis of mass production of algae in LED-based photobioreactors

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Sugar-stimulated CO2 sequestration by the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris” (Fu et al., 2019) [1]. The data describe a rational design and scale-up of LED-based photobioreactors for producing value-added algal biomass while removing waste CO2 from flu gases from power plants. The dataset were created from growth rate experiments for biomass production including direct biomass productivity data, PBR size and setup parameters, medium composition as well as indirect energy cost and overhead in Iceland. A complete economic analysis is formed through a cost breakdown as well as PBR scalability predictions.


a b s t r a c t
The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Sugar-stimulated CO 2 sequestration by the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris" (Fu et al., 2019) [1]. The data describe a rational design and scale-up of LED-based photobioreactors for producing value-added algal biomass while removing waste CO 2 from flu gases from power plants. The dataset were created from growth rate experiments for biomass production including direct biomass productivity data, PBR size and setup parameters, medium composition as well as indirect energy cost and overhead in Iceland. A complete economic analysis is formed through a cost breakdown as well as PBR scalability predictions.
& 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Subject area
Biotechnology More specific subject area Environmental biotechnology Type of data  [1].

Value of the data
The data show the economic feasibility of algal biomass production using artificial LED illumination.
The economic analysis is provided to predict the limiting cost factors of algal mass production. The data can be used to provide a benchmark for future industrial applications of algae.

Data
To analyze and calculate the major costs of mass production of algae, it is critical to evaluate the scalability of a PBR system. The key data are from the design parameters of LED-based photobioreactor systems as well as the experimentally derived biomass productivity data ( Table 1). As shown in Table 1, the costs of LED-based PBRs for producing algae are high at present and only feasible for value-added products. Detailed data are accessible through the research article [1].

Experimental design, materials and methods
A bubble column LED-based PBR system was tested and used for economic analysis of mass production. The PBR systems are setup with controllable key parameters including input CO 2 level (mixed with air), LED illumination (different spectra and intensities), temperature and pH in the medium. Artificial light supplied to the PBRs was based on LEDs consisting of narrow spectrum of red light, blue light or combined red and blue light [2]. Blue LEDs have a narrow output spectrum of 470 7 20 or 488 7 20 nm while red LEDs have a narrow output spectrum of 660 7 20 or 680 7 20 nm. The LED panels with different peaks (660 or 680 nm; 470 or 488 nm) used depend on the availability and cost in the market. A prototype of three PBR units highlighting artificial LED illumination was shown in Fig. 1. These PBR units formed the basis for growth rate experiments and showed the feature and scalability of bubble-column photobioreactors.
A fast-growing algal strain C. vulgaris (UTEX 26, UTEX Culture Collection of Algae) achieved in a previous study [2] was further optimized [1]. The biomass production data as well as photobioreactor design related parameter data are experimentally derived [1]. With all these direct and indirect parameters for algal mass production in LED-based PBRs including growth rate data, PBR size data, medium composition data, energy cost and overhead in Iceland, a cost breakdown is performed for a complete economic analysis.