Parametric Study of Photosynthetic CO2 Conversion for Thermophilic Cyanobacterial Growth in a Novel Membrane-based Photo Bioreactor

A novel, laboratory-scale, membrane-based photo bioreactor was used to investigate the feasibility of CO 2 removal from flue gas of coal-fired power plants using the photosynthetic conversion of CO 2 in terms of algal biomass productivity (g m -2 day -1 ). The experiments employed atmospheric CO 2 and CO 2 -enriched air concentrations of 0.5% and 10% under light intensities of 7510 mol m -2 s -1 , with gas and water temperatures of 503 C. An initial mass of thermophilic cyanobacterial was grown on a 2'x1' vertical growth surface for a 16-day period. The culture media flowed vertically down the growth surfaces while a CO 2 -enriched air stream was circulated horizontally across and parallel to the surfaces. The productivities of algal biomass growth in atmospheric CO 2 , 0.5% and 10% CO 2 were approximately 1.20, 1.82, and 1.86 g m -2 day -1 , respectively. The result showed insignificant difference in gained algal biomass between 0.5% and 10% CO 2 .