Algae Photobioreactor for High-throughput, Low-cost Research and Development

To advance a strong and economically viable biofuels and bioproducts industry, tools are needed for selecting and improving microalgae strains that exhibit higher productivities under conditions prevalent in the open pond environment. Conventional laboratory cultivation systems do not meet research needs, as they are either high-cost, but at low replication, or alternatively low up- front cost, at the expensive of increased labor. This project will develop laboratory bioreactors that increase research throughput and efficiency to select for strains that exhibit faster growth, productivities and other desired attributes in large-scale cultivation. This project will develop low-cost high-throughput laboratory microalgae cultivations systems with multiple, ten or more, automated photobioreactors that mimic the fluctuating environment in outdoor ponds in light intensities, temperature, pH and other variables. The reactors will be automatically diluted and monitored, allowing for the selection of natural or genetically improved algal strains with high biomass productivities and content of biofuel precursors and bioproducts. In Phase I the MicroBio Engineering Inc. team will develop and validate a prototype bubble column array photobioreactor (BCA-PBR) with 14 reactors with controlled and programmed light intensities, temperature regimes, pH control, and increased automation for programmable dilution events and online-density monitoring. The objective is to provide such a multiplexed reactor system at low costs, to allow large numbers of algal strains to be tested and selected for high productivity and desired products under realistic large-scale algae cultivation environments.The laboratory photobioreactor systems will find widespread applications in the search for and selection of algal strains that exhibit increased productivities, contents of desired bioproducts and other desired characteristics for large-scale cultivation. The public benefit will be in enabling the development of a robust microalgae industry in the USA for the production of higher value products and commodities, such as animal feeds and biofuels. The demand and potential for such equipment in the development of this technology is demonstrated by the attached letters of support.