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RACEWAY REACTOR FOR MICROALGAL BIODIESEL PRODUCTION
Impact/Purpose:
Biodiesel from microalgae has been identified as one of the most promising alternative fuels for replacing traditional fossil fuels due to its carbon neutrality, renewability and sustainability. For algal biodiesel to be cost-effective, the two technical challenges in algal cultivation have to be overcome: improve algal productivity and lipid accumulation than that is currently possible; and develop energyefficient bioreactor configurations for maintaining optimal levels of sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrients. This project will focus on the development of a novel bioreactor design to enhance carbon dioxide (CO2) levels to achieve two goals: 1) increase algal growth and lipid accumulation; and 2) sequester anthropogenic CO2 emissions to reduce greenhouse effect. As part of this study, a mathematical model will be developed, calibrated, and validated.
Description:
The proposed mathematical model incorporating mass transfer, hydraulics, carbonate/aquatic chemistry, biokinetics, biology and reactor design will be calibrated and validated using the data to be generated from the experiments. The practical feasibility of the proposed reactor configuration will be evaluated using the results of the experiments and model simulations. The validated model can be of use in optimizing the process and in scale-up of the process.
The results of this P3 project will be incorporated into one of the graduate level courses to be taught by the PI of this proposal. The lab scale reactor to be constructed in this project will be used as demo in this course and in an undergraduate Hydraulic Engineering course taught by the PI to illustrate the use of channel flow principles in non-traditional applications. The mathematical model to be developed in this project will be used as a simulation and design tool in the graduate level course.