Horizontal Tubular Microalgae Photobioreactor Plant View Factors and Diffuse Radiation

Abstract

Different view factors and different components of the diffuse solar radiation impinging on a photobioreactor plant for cultivating microalgae products are formulated and calculated in the present article. The outdoor plant consists of multiple horizontal tubes arranged in multiple vertical walls. The diffuse radiation on a tube may come from three directions of the sky: from the aperture between the walls (from the sky above), from the penetration of the diffuse radiation between the tubes, and from the plant edges. Each component of the diffuse radiation is associated with a different view factor. For design parameters of a practical plant, the largest component of the diffuse radiation comes from the sky above the plant.