Özet:

This work proposed an integration of raceway pond and airlift pump (RWPAP) for microalgae cultivation. Therefore, the proposed reactor was evaluated under various configurations of liquid depth in the raceway reactor, air flow rates, two riser airlift pump diameter and two nozzle hole diameter. The minimum air flow rate necessary for circulating medium in the RWPAP reactor in addition to the liquid velocity in the reactor was investigated. These parameters as well as the power consumption were determined in order to achieve the maximum efficiency and effectiveness configuration. The maximum effectiveness configuration of the RWPAP system was achieved at the water depth 40 cm, air flow rate 0.83 L min-1, injector hole diameter 0.5 mm and tube diameter 0.75 inch that produced the maximum ratio velocity to power consumption with near one tenth of power consumption of the maximum efficiency configuration. At these configurations, the microalga Dunaliella Salina was cultivated in the natural culture medium from the Maharlu Salt Lake, southeast of Shiraz, Iran in order to achieve commercialization and reduce cultivation cost and the results showed that the effectiveness configuration had better biomass productivity, CO2 utilization efficiency, power consumption and water evaporation rate compared to another configuration. The effectiveness configurations gave comparable batch biomass productivity (0.096 g L-1 day-1) and 25.37% CO2 utilization efficiency, but around five-times higher biomass productivity per unit power input (2.21 g W-1 day-1) than reported for the modified airlift reactors. Furthermore, the β-carotene content and composition of fatty acids were evaluated. <

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