Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

An efficient system for carbonation of high-rate algae pond water to enhance

CO2 mass transfer
Ron Putt b, Manjinder Singh a,⇑, Senthil Chinnasamy a, K.C. Das a
a
Biorefining and Carbon Cycling Program, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
b
Three Two Technologies, 129 Charleston Place, Auburn, AL 36830, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: High-rate algal ponds have the potential to produce 59 T of dry biomass ha1 year1 based on the specific
Received 16 August 2010 productivity of 20 g m2 day1. Atmospheric air provides only 5% of the CO2 to the pond surface required
Received in revised form 4 November 2010 for photosynthesis. Hence, CO2 is usually provided via bubbling of concentrated CO2-air mixture into the
Accepted 9 November 2010
algae ponds. This process is, however, not significantly effective in terms of mass transfer. Use of bubble
Available online 13 November 2010
column to increase the interfacial area of contact available for gas exchange is proposed as an efficient
alternative. A carbonation column (CC) was modeled and designed to measure CO2 absorptivity in-pond
Keywords:
water at various pH regimes. The CC performed at 83% CO2 transfer efficiency. An air-to-pond mass trans-
Algae
Bubble column
port coefficient of 0.0037 m min1 was derived. The proposed device can be used with any exhaust gas
CO2 stream with higher concentrations of CO2 in conjunction with raceways for optimizing algae production.
High-rate pond Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Mass transfer

1. Introduction High-rate ponds need a supply of concentrated CO2 (at least 5%

Farming of microalgae as energy crops has the potential to
provide a major fraction of the transportation fuels for the coun-
try (Spolaore et al., 2006; Harun et al., 2010). High-rate algae
ponds have the potential to produce 17,000–28,000 L of transpor-
tation fuels ha1 year1. This estimate is based on an average spe-
cific productivity of 20 g of dry biomass m2 day1, and a 300 day
growing season which would produce more than 59 T of dry bio-
mass ha1 year1 (Brennan and Owende, 2010). This is 10–100
times the areal productivity of soybeans or corn, on non-arable
land (Chisti, 2007). Because microalgal biomass is made up of
about 50% carbon (Becker, 1994; Grobbelaar, 2004), this element
is a major nutrient for algal biomass growth. Under phototrophic
growth conditions in open ponds, algae utilize atmospheric car-
bondioxide (CO2) as carbon source to synthesize organic com-
pounds. However, the major problem with this mode of algae
cultivation is the CO2 limitations because of: (1) relatively low
atmospheric CO2 concentration (less than 400 ppm), (2) very shal-
low algal culture suspension (15–30 cm) in-ponds, (3) high areal
productivity combined with (4) the relatively low rate of CO2
transfer from the air to the pond water. In fact, high-rate ponds
are estimated to get only 5% of their carbon requirement from
the atmosphere (Stepan et al., 2002).
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 706 227 7146; fax: +1 706 542 8806.
E-mail address: singhm@engr.uga.edu (M. Singh).
v/v) to sustain algal growth, and therefore will need to be co-
located adjacent to point sources (Coal or natural gas based power
plants and industries including pulp and paper, cement, sugar, fer-
tilizer, steel and distilleries). Alternatively, an emerging carbon
capture and distribution pipeline industry could supply CO2 to al-
gae farms. Further, the CO2 extraction from flue gas using a typical
monoethanolamine (MEA) process could cut down the CO2 capture
and delivery cost to ponds (100 km) by 40% relative to direct
pumping of flue gas to delivery site (Kadam, 1997). Once a CO2
source is available, it is needed to be fed to the ponds efficiently.
Currently, for the CO2 mass transfer in the algae ponds, the CO2-
enriched air is simply sparged into the pond water through sin-
tered porous stones placed at the bottom of the pond. Unfortu-
nately, a major drawback of this mode of CO2 supply is that
80–90% of the CO2 is not transferred to the water and is eventually
lost to the atmosphere (Becker, 1994; Richmond and Becker, 1986).
This makes algae growth operations cost intensive (Tapie and
Bernard, 1988) and hence, CO2 loss in the exhaust gas need to be
minimized. The chemical process industry is well-versed in gas-
to-liquid mass transfer unit operations viz. trapping the bubbles
under transparent plastic sheets (Heussler et al., 1978), gas diffu-
sion through membranes of silicon tubing permeable to CO2
(Kun-Lee and Kwan-Hing, 1989), and use of airlift photobioreactors
and bubble columns (Sanchez et al., 2000). Among these, the bub-
ble column is the simplest and least expensive option for gas to li-
quid mass transfer. Installation of an efficient sparging-diffusion

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.11.029
 R. Putt et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245
system, aimed at increasing interfacial area of gas bubbles and
gas–liquid contact time, leads to enhanced CO2 mass-transfer effi-
ciency of the bubble column (Sanchez et al., 2000). Membrane dif-
fusion systems theoretically seemed better when compared to
bubbling system, viz., no CO2 loss, accurately controlled CO2 trans-
fer rates and better overall efficiencies. However, such a system
can be cost intensive due to requirement of long tubing mem-
branes (Carvalho et al., 2006). The gas–liquid interfacial area and
contact time are reported to be the key parameters to improve
the gas–liquid mass transfer (Carvalho et al., 2006). Thus, the major
challenge in the microalgae research is to design an efficient and
cost effective carbonation system for the existing high-rate ponds
to satisfy the high CO2 requirement that will eventually improve
the biomass productivity.
In the present study, a carbonation column (CC) was modeled
and designed for CO2 supplementation with 90% efficiency
(Fig. 1). The transfer efficiency and absorptivity of CO2 were stud-
ied for the CC and compared with those observed via traditional
gas sparging directly into pond water. A simple technique based
Fig. 1. A view of the Carbonation column. (A) gas inlet, (B) Drain, (C) vertical loop
on effluent to maintain proper water height in column (pipe connector to column is
only for support; it is blanked off to flow), (D) pond water effluent, (E) pond water
influent.
3241
on the acid–base neutralization reaction between carbonic acid
and sodium hydroxide was used to calculate CO2 absorptivity.
2. Methods
2.1. Description of carbonation column and CO2 supplying facility
Two raceway ponds of identical dimensions, each with a surface
area of 1.1 m2 and 420 L of tap water at 15 cm height (Figs. 1 and
2), were used in this test. One pond was connected to the CC and
the other (control pond) was fitted with a 5 cm long air sparger
at the bottom. The paddle wheel motor in the raceway was oper-
ated at 30% capacity giving a surface water velocity of approxi-
mately 20 cm s1. The CC was made of 3.3 mm thick transparent
polyvinylchloride (Schedule 40 PVC) pipe with internal diameter
of 0.076 m and height of 3.0 m. An air sparger (5 cm) was fitted
at 10 cm above the bottom of the column. Water was pumped into
the carbonation column at 7 L min1 from the top to provide coun-
ter-current water flow relative to the gas bubbles. The CC and con-
trol pond were supplied with 5% CO2-air mixture from a certified
5% CO2 -air cylinder at 1.5 L min1.
2.2. CO2 mass-transfer efficiency at various pH regimes
Three experimental runs were performed on both ponds at dif-
ferent pH ranges. In the first run, the pH in each pond was raised to
10.0 by adding 10% (w/v) NaOH. The CO2 was bubbled into each
pond as explained in Section 2.1 and the pH values of water were
recorded until water pH reached a value of 9.0. The CO2 absorbed
was quantified by measuring the amount of NaOH required to raise
the pH of pond water from its initial value of 9.0–10.0 employing
the acid–base neutralization reaction between carbonic acid and
sodium hydroxide. The CO2 mass-transfer efficiency was calculated
based upon a stoichiometric relationship of NaOH consumed and
CO2 added as described below.
H2 O þ CO2 $ H2 CO3 ð1Þ
H2 CO3 þ 2NaOH $ Na2 CO3 þ 2H2 O ð2Þ
The moles of sodium hydroxide added (MNaOH), is calculated as:
V qC
MNaOH ¼ ð3Þ
MW
where V is the volume in mL of NaOH solution added to raise the pH
from 9 to 10, q is the density of the solution (1.1 g mL1), C is the
concentration (10%), and MW is the molecular weight of NaOH
(40 g mol1). The quantity of carbon dioxide transferred to the li-
quid is calculated as:
Q sC
MCO2 ¼ ð4Þ
Vm
where Q is the volumetric flow rate of gas (1.5 L min1), s is the
duration of time from start to finish (in minutes), C is the concentra-
tion of CO2 in the gas mixture used (5%) and Vm is the molar volume
at 1 atmosphere and 25 °C (24.465 L mol1).
The efficiency of carbon dioxide transfer is calculated as:
M NaOH
ECO2 transfer ¼  100 ð5Þ
2M CO2
The second and third runs were performed under similar condi-
tions with different initial and final pH values viz. 9.0 to 8.0 and 8.0
to 7.0, respectively.
3242 R. Putt et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245

8
6

7
1

6 6
5
1 2

Fig. 2. The schematic diagram of experiment facility used for carbonation of pond water. (1) Raceway pond; (2) Gas sparger; (3) Carbonation column; (4) 5% CO2-air pressure
cylinder; (5) Valve; (6) Flowmeter; (7) Pump; (8) Gas exhaust.

2.3. Mathematical model 2.3.2. Gas bubble content

The mass transport on the liquid side of the bubble surface was
analyzed because this is considered limiting and transport on the
gas side is much faster. By setting the liquid flow rate high enough,
the CO2 concentration was maintained at less than or equal to 10%
of its saturation value at the liquid phase exit and the bulk liquid
CO2 concentration (C) could be approximated as 0.
2.3.1. Gas–liquid mass transfer
The transport rate (R) of CO2 from the bubble surface was fol-
lowed from the equation given by Pirt, 1975:
R ¼ kL AðC s  CÞ ð6Þ
where kL is the liquid-phase mass transport coefficient
(0.00016 m s1 from Shah et al., 1982), A is the bubble surface area,
and Cs is the saturation concentration of CO2. Using Henry’s Law at
30 °C the concentration of CO2 is estimated as:
C ¼ PA qm kH ¼ 28PA ð7Þ
where PA is the partial pressure of CO2 in atm, qm is the molar den-
sity of water (56,000 mol m3) and kH is Henry’s Law constant for
CO2 at 30 °C (2000 atm mol1 fraction obtained from Emmert and
Pigford, 1963).The Cs in-pond water at 30 °C was calculated from
Eq. (7) as:
C s ¼ 28  P1 ¼ 1:4 mol m3
And the liquid flow-rate at saturation was calculated as
1.37 L min1.
Based on these calculations about 5 times higher flow-rate to
the model value i.e., 7.0 L min1 of pond water flow to the column
was selected to avoid a significant approach to saturation.
The rate of CO2 transfer out of the bubble and into the liquid
phase in terms of the time rate of change of CO2 partial pressure
in the gas bubble is:
dPA
V Vm ð8Þ
dt
where V is the volume of the gas bubble, Vm is the molar volume of
ideal gas at 30 °C (41 mol m3 atm). Equating the transport (Eq. (6))
and time rate-of-change terms (Eq. (8)) we get:
dPA
41 V ¼ 0:00016  28 PA  A ð9Þ
dt
For a 0.003 m diameter bubble, the value of A/V is 2000 m1, there-
fore Eq. (9) simplifies to:
dPA
¼ 0:22 dt ð10Þ
dt
For a 10-fold reduction in partial pressure of CO2 (i.e. 90% trans-
fer and PA1/PA2 = 10), from Eq. (10) it was calculated that
t = 10.47 s. Since the bubble rise velocity was set at 0.3 m s1 (Shah
et al., 1982), the minimum column height (H) would be 3.1 m.
2.3.3. Carbonation column design
Aimed at transferring 90% of the CO2 to the liquid phase re-
quires a 3.1 m tall column, the gas and liquid phase flow-rates
and the column diameter were calculated based on the need to
support photosynthesis in the experimental ponds for studying al-
gal growth kinetics. The column design was based on the following
criteria: (1) one column for each pond; (2) pond area 1.1 m2; (3)
average areal biomass productivity 20 g m2 day1; (4) 5% CO2 in
the gas stream; and (5) 10% increase in CO2 concentration of the li-
quid phase per pass through the column.
 R. Putt et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245
2.3.4. CO2 requirement
Assuming average algae biomass productivity at 20 g m2
day1, the daily biomass productivity of 1.1 m2 raceway pond with
1.5 times overdesign consideration would be 32 g algae biomass
day1. As the carbon content of algae is 50% of its dry weight
(Grobbelaar, 2004), 1.35 mol CO2 day1 is required to achieve the
target algal biomass. Recalculating CO2 volumes in terms of
L min1 resulted in a flow rate of 0.93 L min1 of 5% CO2 air mix-
ture to the CC.
2.3.5. Calculation of column diameter
The area of column cross-section (Ac) was modeled as ten times
of area of gas bubble (Ag = 0.52 cm2), and was calculated as follows:
Ac ¼ 10ðAg Þ ¼ 10ðQ=tÞ ¼ 5:2 cm2 ð11Þ
where Q , gas flow rate (0.93 L min1); t, bubble rise velocity
(30 cm s1).
Thus the minimum diameter of column should be 2.57 cm.
However, a Schedule 40 PVC pipe of 7.6 cm (diameter) was se-
lected taking into consideration, the structural stability of the
3.1 m high column and also because of its availability off the shelf.
3. Results and discussion
The diameter of the column was sized to ensure that only 10% of
the volume is gas. The gas bubbles, estimated to be 0.003 m in
diameter, then rise individually at their terminal velocity of
0.3 m s1 without coalescence into larger bubbles, which is impor-
tant for achieving efficient mass transport (Shah et al., 1982). The
mass transport of an individual bubble can be followed as it rises
through the water column, to calculate the number of seconds,
and thus the column height, required for the bubble to lose 90%
of its carbon dioxide. The 90% recovery was selected because the
concentration of CO2 in the bubble will decline exponentially with
time, so that it would take the same additional column height to go
from 10% (absolute) CO2 remaining to 1% (absolute) CO2 remaining
as it would for the 100% to 10% reduction, which may not be eco-
nomically attractive. The mass transfer of CO2 from gas phase to li-
quid phase occurs via sequential stages: transport from the bulk of
the gas bubble to the thin gaseous film at the interface; diffusion
through this gas film; transport across gas–liquid interface; diffu-
sion through the adjacent liquid film and finally transport from
the thin liquid film to the bulk of the liquid (Carvalho et al.,
2006). The gas molecules experience resistance at every stage of
transfer as they occur in series and the overall resistance over
the entire path can be calculated as sum of these resistances at
every stage. It has been reported that most of the resistance oc-
curred during transfer through liquid film, thus confirming that
CO2 transport is mainly controlled by resistance offered by the li-
quid film (Becker and Kyle, 1998). As given in Eq. (6), the rate of
mass transfer is proportional to concentration difference between
one actual bulk concentration of one phase and an equivalent bulk
concentration of the other phase and the area available for transfer
(area of bubble). It is therefore reasonable to denote the overall
mass-transfer coefficient (k), which is the sum of the reciprocals
of resistances to transfer, as liquid-phase mass-transfer coefficient
(kl) because of the dominance of resistance at liquid-phase mass
transfer. Talbot et al., 1991, reported that in CO2 transfer, the kLA
is one of the most important parameters in design, scale-up and
operation steps for algal mass culture system.
The rate of CO2 uptake could be calculated, by raising quantita-
tively the pH of clear, algae-free water with a strong base such as
NaOH, and then by measuring the amount of time required to re-
duce the pH by a given amount, knowing that one mole of CO2
added to the water would neutralize 2 mol of NaOH (Matsumoto
3243
et al., 1998). The other way of measuring CO2 transfer rates would
be to grow algae in the pond and measure dry mass production and
carbon content. However, this would introduce many uncontrolled
variables into the measurements, notably those associated with
photosynthesis (Sobczuk et al., 2000). The observed CO2 mass-
transfer efficiency of CC was 83% as compared to 37% efficiency ob-
served in control pond at alkaline pH range of 10 to 9 (Table 1). The
rate of CO2 transfer for CC was 58% higher than control pond as it
took only 29 min for CC to decrease the pond pH from 10 to 9,
whereas, the identical results could only be achieved in 50 min
via direct sparging of gas into control pond (Table 1). In the second
run for pH regime 9 to 8, again CC performed better than control
pond with 82% efficiency whereas in control pond only 36% effi-
ciency could be achieved. The CO2 transfer rate was 64% higher
for CC against control. Interestingly, the carbonation rate was more
than 3 times faster in case of pH range 9 to 8 than pH range 10 to 9
for both ponds. This indicated that high alkalinity of water could
decrease the CO2 absorptivity. At these two pH ranges the efficien-
cies were reproducible for both the column and the control. The
column efficiencies were 7–8% (absolute) below the model predic-
tions, which could be attributed to the observed coalescence of
bubbles, thus resulting into decreased specific gas–liquid interfa-
cial area (Carvalho and Malcata, 2001). The control efficiency of
36–37% could be predicted by the CC model. It was observed that
the bubbles rising from the sparger in the bottom of the control
pond took about two seconds to reach the surface and break open.
From Eq. (10) in Section 2.3.2., for a time of 2 s the partial pressures
ratio is 0.64, which corresponds to a transfer efficiency of 36%.
The third run done below pH 8 was even more instructive. The pH
never reached 7, but reached steady state values of 7.11 and 7.56 for
the CC and the control, respectively (data not shown). This illus-
trated the volatility of dissolved CO2 below pH 8. As shown in
Fig. 3, the inorganic carbon may exist in several interconvertible
2
chemical forms, CO2 (aq), H2CO3, HCO 3 and CO3  based on the pH
of aqueous environments (Goldman et al., 1981; Becker, 1994).
Although HCO 3 is easily absorbed by algal cells, CO2 is reported to
be the most preferred source of inorganic carbon (Goldman et al.,
1981). However, at the pH > 10.3 the CO23  form dominates and
the chemical precipitation of salts is highly likely to occur and hence
could lead to medium deterioration and algal cell injury. It is thus
proposed that the pH range for such measurements should be in
the range of 8–10, at least for systems where the water is exposed
to the atmosphere, owing to the loss of CO2 which would otherwise
occur when at least some of the dissolved carbon is in a volatile form,
namely CO2 or carbonic acid. Above pH 8 all the carbon is in the non-
volatile form of either bicarbonate or carbonate.
We propose that the steady state pH values are the result of
pond-to-air transport of carbon dioxide. Below pH 8, a significant
percentage of the CO2 is in a volatile form (i.e. H2CO3 or dissolved
CO2) (Fig. 3) and so pond concentrations above that set by the sat-
uration value for CO2 in air (385 ppm) will result in loss of CO2 by
the pond water to the atmosphere. The calculated rates of CO2
injection by the CC and control at 82% and 36% efficiencies were
calculated as 2.6  103 and 1.1  103 mol min1 respectively
based on the data from the runs made above pH 8.
After several calculations, the H2CO3 concentration for the CC
and control ponds were calculated as 0.63 and 0.22 mol m3
respectively, from the amount of NaOH added to them.
We propose that the steady state pH values reflect a balance be-
tween CO2 supply by the spargers and loss at the surface of the
ponds. The rate equation (Eq. (6)) can thus be explained as:
Rloss ¼ kL AðC pond Þ ð12Þ
where Rloss is the rate of loss in moles per minute, kl is a rate con-
stant, A is the pond surface area in square meters, and Cpond is the
3244 R. Putt et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245

Table 1
Values of CO2 transfer efficiencies of CC and control pond.

Pond NaOH added (moles) CO2 added (Carbonation time) -moles (min) Carbonation efficiency (%)
pH 9 to 10 pH 8 to 9 pH 10 to 9 pH 9 to 8 pH 10 to 9 pH 9 to 8
CC 0.15 0.046 0.091(29) 0.028 (9) 83 82
Control 0.11 0.04 0.15 (50) 0.056 (14) 37 36

plot of the data is shown in Fig. 4.The rate constant was then calcu-
lated as 0.0037 m min1.
Using this value of rate constant the Eq. (6) was modified as be-
low to calculate the growth rate of algae supported by atmospheric
CO2 transport to the pond surface if that was the only source of car-
bon dioxide:

Rgain ¼ kL AðC s  C b Þ

where Rgain is the CO2 uptake by the pond from the atmosphere
(assuming no artificial supply of carbon dioxide to the pond), Cb is
the carbon dioxide concentration in the bulk of the pond, and Cs
is that at the surface. For the maximum rate of transfer we set
Cb = 0.Then,
1
Fig. 3. Distribution coefficients for CO2 in water (Bialkowski, 2004). Rgain ¼ 0:0037 m min  ð0:011 mol m3  0Þ
1
¼ 0:000041 mol m2 min :
concentration of volatile CO2 in the pond, in moles per cubic meter. Converting to an algae production rate, assuming CO2 transfer
Therefore to the pond water day and night, the biomass productivity was cal-
culated as1.3 g m2 day1 which is only 6.5% of the average bio-
Rloss
¼ kL A ¼ constant mass productivity of high-rate algae ponds. These CC model
C pond predictions are in accordance with Stepan et al., 2002.
This confirms the previously reported results by Stepan et al.
which was 0.0041 m min1 for CC and 0.0050 m min1 for control (2002), which showed that atmospheric supply of CO2 to the ponds
pond. Around the average of 0.0045 m min1 the spread is 10%. A would only be about 5–7% of that needed to support high-rate algae
growth. Thus the CC technology can satisfy the CO2 demand for
3
high-rate algae ponds and significantly reduce the production cost
of algae biomass by enhancing the biomass productivity per unit
2.5
Rate x 1,000 molmin -1

area. The usual practice, to date, is to submerge the gas sparger into
2 the pond. In some instances a rectangular well, crosswise in the
pond, is provided to increase the contact time for the bubbles before
1.5 they reach the surface. The depth of this well is generally less than
three feet. This would be less expensive to install than a 10 foot
1 deep carbonation pit for the same purpose, although the cost of
the pit would represent less than 1% of the installed cost for the
0.5 farm. The well in the pond, however, would be less efficient in
carbon dioxide transfer, increasing the cost of the carbon dioxide.
0 For example, at US $ 0.11 kg1 of carbon dioxide (the current
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 commercial bulk price), a three foot deep well, at a transfer effi-
-1
Concentration, mol L ciency of 48% (taken from our model) would contribute US $
463 T1 to the cost of the algae. This is nearly double the US $
Fig. 4. CO2 transfer rates at pond surfaces.
242 T1 of algae paid when the carbonation pit is used, at a transfer

Table 2
Comparison chart of methods for gas transfer in photobioreactors (adapted and modified from Carvalho et al., 2006).

Process Type of reactor Feature References

Gas transfer Mixing Hydrodynamic Scale-up
stress
Surface Aeration Unstirred shallow ponds Poor Very poor Very low Difficult Yamaguchi, 1996
Membrane transfer Hollow fiber membrane Excellent Uniform Medium Medium Chrismada and Borowitzka, 1994
Gas injection into culture Air lift High Uniform Low Medium Chen and Johns, 1995
Bubble column Fair Fair Low Medium Tredici and Rodolfi, 2004
Stirred tanks Low/high Uniform High Difficult Tredici, 2003
Bubble column-raceway pond hybrid High Uniform Low Medium Current study
Flat-plate High Uniform Low/high Difficult Grima et al., 1994
Tubular Fair/high Uniform Low/high Difficult Acien-Fernandez et al., 2005
Gas exchanger Tubular solar receptor Good Good (by pumping) Medium Difficult Alias et al., 2004
 R. Putt et al. / Bioresource Technology 102 (2011) 3240–3245
efficiency of 89%. In other words, for less than a 1% increase in the
installed cost of the farm, the cost of the carbon dioxide when a car-
bonation pit is used is nearly half that of the deepest in-pond car-
bonation well reported in the literature. This CC design is an
example of hybrid system combining column bioreactor and open
pond. A generic comparison of various bioreactor designs for gas
transfer reported in literature with the carbonation column-race-
way pond hybrid system designed in this study is given in Table
2. Thus the CC is capable of increasing biomass productivity via effi-
cient CO2 mass-transfer that will eventually lowers the investment
cost of algae cultivation systems, and thus become profitable and
fully competitive.
4. Conclusion
The use of carbonation column for CO2 mass transfer into mic-
roalgal culture ponds not only offers enhanced efficiency of gas
transfer but also meets the CO2 demand of high-rate algae outdoor
ponds. The mass-transfer efficiency was best observed in low alka-
line water (pH 8–9). The CC performed at twice the transfer rate
compared to direct bubbling, and thus offers the opportunity to
significantly reduce the cost of algae pond carbonation. The ease
to design and construct the CC makes it an economical device for
carbon recycling and can be used with various CO2 rich air streams
for optimizing algae production.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded in part by a US Department of Energy
grant, # DE-PS36-08G098017, and in part by an Alabama Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Industries grant through the Alabama
Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering of Auburn
University.
The assistance of Ronnie Claxton and Donald Lakly of the
University of Georgia was invaluable for this work.
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