Improvement on light penetrability and microalgae biomass production by periodically pre-harvesting Chlorella vulgaris cells with culture medium recycling

Abstract

To improve light penetrability and biomass production in batch cultivation, a cultivation mode that periodically pre-harvesting partial microalgae cells from suspension with culture medium recycling was proposed. By daily pre-harvesting 30% microalgae cells from the suspension, the average light intensity in the photobioreactor (PBR) was enhanced by 27.05–122.06%, resulting in a 46.48% increase in total biomass production than that cultivated in batch cultivation without pre-harvesting under an incident light intensity of 160μmolm−2s−1. Compared with the semi-continuous cultivation with 30% microalgae suspension daily replaced with equivalent volume of fresh medium, nutrients and water input was reduced by 60% in the proposed cultivation mode but with slightly decrease (12.82%) in biomass production. No additional nutrient was replenished when culture medium recycling. Furthermore, higher pre-harvesting ratios (40%, 60%) and lower pre-harvesting frequencies (every 2, 2.5days) were not advantageous for the pre-harvesting cultivation mode.