Abstract
A bottom-illuminated orbital shaker designed for the cultivation of microalgae suspensions is described in this open-source hardware report. The instrument agitates and illuminates microalgae suspensions grown inside flasks. It was optimized for low production cost, simplicity, low power consumption, design flexibility, consistent, and controllable growth light intensity.The illuminated orbital shaker is especially well suited for low-resource research laboratories and education. It is an alternative to commercial instruments for microalgae cultivation. It improves on typical do-it-yourself microalgae growth systems by offering consistent and well characterized illumination light intensity. The illuminated growth area is 20 cm × 15 cm, which is suitable for three T75 tissue culture flasks or six 100 ml Erlenmeyer flasks. The photosynthetic photon flux density, is variable in eight steps (26-800μmol·m-2·s-1) and programmable in a 24-h light/dark cycle. The agitation speed is variable (0-210RPM). The overall material cost is around £300, including an entry-level orbital shaker. The build takes two days, requiring electronics and mechanical assembly capabilities. The instrument build is documented in a set of open-source protocols, design files, and source code. The design can be readily modified, scaled, and adapted for other orbital shakers and specific experimental requirements.The instrument function was validated by growing fresh-water microalgae Desmodesmus quadricauda and Chlorella vulgaris. The cultivation protocols, microalgae growth curves, and doubling times are included in this report.
Highlights
The illuminated orbital shaker is especially well suited for low-resource research laboratories and education
Bottom-illuminated orbital shaker systems for microalgae cultivation offer more consistent illumination [11, 12], but are not widely used. This manuscript describes an open hardware design for a bottom-illuminated orbital shaker for the cultivation of microalgae (Figure 1A). It was optimized for production cost simplicity, low power consumption, design flexibility, and consistent and controllable growth light intensity to Bottom-Illuminated Orbital Shaker for Microalgae Culture
photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) was measured in air, on the surface of the illuminated orbital shaker platform, and submerged in deionized water inside a glass Erlenmeyer flask, normally used for microalgae cultivation
Summary
Microalgae, like plants, use photosynthesis as the primary energy source for their metabolic needs [1]. Closed system bioreactors (Figure 1B) and temperature-controlled illuminated growth cabinets (Figure 1C) are designed to offer regulated and versatile conditions for microalgae cultivation [2, 3] These specialized machines are expensive (£1000s − £10000s), can have large power (> kW) and space requirements, and operating costs. Flasks with microalgae are placed on top of an orbital shaker (Figure 1D) with a light source illuminating the culture from the top [9, 10] This solution is cheap and simple to implement. This manuscript describes an open hardware design for a bottom-illuminated orbital shaker for the cultivation of microalgae (Figure 1A) It was optimized for production cost simplicity, low power consumption, design flexibility, and consistent and controllable growth light intensity to Bottom-Illuminated Orbital Shaker for Microalgae Culture
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