Types of photobioreactors

Photobioreactors are bioreactors with illumination specifically used for the culture of photosynthetic microorganisms, such as microalgae and cyanobacteria. The most basic configurations of photobioreactors include vertical columns, horizontal tubes, and flat plates. To overcome the limitations in these classical configurations, researchers and engineers have developed innovative types of photobioreactors, such as helical tubular, flat panel-airlift, plastic bag type, Taylor vortex, internally illuminated, and other innovative photobioreactors. This chapter focused on the different types of photobioreactors, including their advantages and disadvantages, operation principles, and innovations. Some innovative photobioreactors with unique shapes, such as conical, fractal tree-like, L-shaped, pyramid, ring, torus, V-shaped, X-shaped, and others are discussed. Among all photobioreactor designs, horizontal tubular, and flat-panel airlift demonstrated the highest potential for commercial applications for mass cultivation of photosynthetic microorganisms owing to the advantage of large illumination surface area to volume ratio and efficient mass transfer.