Abstract
Evens, T. J.United States Department of Agriculture‐Agricultural Research Service, Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, LA 70124 USA.The majority of photobioreactor research has been directed at optimizing biomass yields. However, the potential for exploiting these highly controlled culturing environments for most physiological research has yet to be realized. The main reason for this is that photobioreactor technology has tended to be overly complex and somewhat cost prohibitive. A new generation of computer‐controlled photobioreactor, designed and optimized for physiological research, has been developed using relatively inexpensive, easily obtained materials. The computer software responsible for controlling this apparatus allows simultaneous monitoring and control of pH, O2, temperature and light for up to six photobioreactors operating concurrently. Additionally, the reactors can be operated as batch cultures, continuous cultures or in a self‐regulating, turbidostat mode. All data pertaining to the reactors can be logged in real‐time to the controlling computer. Most importantly, the control software can be freely distributed. Potential applications and design flexibilities will be discussed.
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