Journal of Applied Phycology 13: 307–315, 2001.

© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

307

Microalgal mass culture systems and methods: Their limitation and

potential

Yuan-Kun Lee
Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore, 5 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117597, Singapore

(∗ Author for correspondence; phone +65-8743284; fax +65-7766872; e-mail micleeyk@nus.edu.sg)

Received 9 August 2000; revised 1 March 2001; accepted 3 March 2001

Key words: culture method, culture process, culture system, heterotrophy, microalgae, mixotrophy

Abstract
Cultivation of microalgae using natural and man-made open-ponds is technologically simple, but not necessary
cheap due to the high down stream processing cost. Products of microalgae cultured in open-ponds could only be
marketed as value-added health food supplements, speciality feed and reagents for research. The need to achieve
higher productivity and to maintain monoculture of algae led to the development of enclosed tubular and flat plate
photobioreactors. Despite higher biomass concentration and better control of culture parameters, data accumulated
in the past 25 years have shown that the illuminated areal, volumetric productivity and cost of production in these
enclosed photobioreactors are not better than those achievable in open-pond cultures. The technical difficulty in
sterilizing these photobioreactors has hindered their application for the production of high value pharmaceutical
products. The alternative of cultivating microalgae in heterotrophic mode in sterilizable fermentors has achieved
some commercial success. The maximum specific growth rates of heterotrophic algal cultures are in general slower
than those measured in photosynthetic cultures. The biomass productivity of heterotrophic algal cultures has yet
to achieve a level that is comparable to industrial production of yeast and other heterotrophic microrganisms.
Mixotrophic cultivation of microalage takes advantage of their ability to utilise organic energy and carbon sub-
strates and perform photosynthesis concurrently. Moreover, production of some algal metabolites is light regulated.
Future design of sterilizable bioreactors for mixotrophic cultivation of microalgae may have to consider the organic
substrate the main source of energy and light the supplemental source of energy, a change in mindset.

Introduction produce desirable microbial products efficiently and

Various physiological and technological approaches
have been proposed and investigated for maxim-
ising productivity in mass algal culture systems (see
Chaumont, 1993; Grobbelaar, 2000; Richmond 1996,
2000). The ultimate test rests on their performance in
field trials. The present article reviews briefly histor-
ical developments in culture systems and methods to
provide a broad perspective in algal mass culture tech-
nology. I then focus on the bottleneck in determining
the productivity of outdoor cultures, which has yet to
be resolved satisfactory. An effective culture system
and associated culture method allow optimal utiliza-
tion of the substrates (including energy substrate) to
economically.
For a long-time, naturally grown microalgae were
harvested from natural sources for human and animal
consumption. This approach is still practised by a
small number of commercial health food companies
and aquaculture hatcheries. No cost for the cultiva-
tion of the algae is incurred, but the productivity and
product quality (both biological and toxicological) can
not be assured.
Man-made open-pond culture system
Realising the potential problems associated with nat-
ural water sources and the potential of microalgae as
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source of biomass and biomolecules, microalgae are
mass cultured in man-made circular, raceway open-
ponds and open cascades after World War II (Becker,
1994; Richmond, 1986). The circular ponds are still
widely used in Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. A circu-
lar pond with a rotating scraper could be shallow (less
than 5 cm) but the size of the pond is limited by the
strain of water resistance on the rotating motor. The
largest pond reported is 50 m (Lee, 1997).
Raceway-shape culture ponds are used in Israel,
the United States of America, China and other coun-
tries. Fertiliser is used and the culture is agitated by
paddle wheel. A cell concentration of about 0.5 g L−1
could be maintained, and a productivity of about 25
g m−2 d−1 had been widely reported (Richmond et
al., 1990). Thus, despite their low capital cost, the
production cost for biomass ranges between US$8–15
per kg of dry weight (personal communication with
commercial producers). This is relatively high com-
pare to fishmeal and soy meal, which are marketed
at about US$1 per kg. Algal biomass is marketed as
health food, speciality feed and source of pigments.
Open cascade system with a culture dept of less
than 1 cm developed in Czech Republic for cultivation
of Chlorella has achieved a higher cell density of 10 g
L−1 , but a comparable areal productivity of 25 g m−2
d−1 (Setlik et al., 1970).
In the open-pond culture system, monoculture of
algae is usually achieved by maintaining an extreme
culture environment, such as high salinity, high alka-
linity and high nutritional status (Lee, 1986). Thus,
a limited range of microalgae could be maintained
as monoculture in open ponds in long term opera-
tion. Todate, only Dunaliella (high salinity), Spirulina
(high alkalinity) and Chlorella (high nutrition) have
been successfully mass cultured and marketed com-
mercially. It must be stressed that such approaches
do not necessary exclude bacteria and other biolo-
gical contaminants (e.g. protozoa), thus a major short
coming of the open culture system.
In some open-pond cultivation processes, organic
carbon substrate, such as acetate is added in small
quantity continuously. This is to support higher bio-
mass concentration and to prevent excessive bacteria
growth, which would be the case if the organic sub-
strate were added in large quantity in the culture
medium. Addition of organic carbon substrate is usu-
ally stopped at night, as the fast growing bacteria
would out compete the algae under heterotrophic cul-
ture condition. This fed batch culture process is often
limited to one culture cycle, for microbial contamin-
ants would have accumulated to an unacceptable level
eventually. Bacterial cells in the culture could be par-
tially removed by size segregation (centrifugation or
filtration) before drying. Viable bacterial cells were
eliminated by heat and radiation treatments.
Enclosed tubular/flat plate photobioreactors
The assumption that high cell concentration is ne-
cessary to achieve higher biomass productivity, and
the need to maintain monoculture for microalgae that
grow in mild culture conditions have led to the devel-
opment of enclosed photobioreactors (Lee, 1986). In
general, two major types of enclosed photobioreact-
ors have evolved in the last 50 years. Various forms
of tubular photobioreactors were proposed. These in-
clude horizontal straight tubes connected by U-bends
(Gudin & Chaumont, 1983; Pirt et al., 1983; Tredici
& Materassi, 1992); α-type photobioreactor with cross
tubes arranged at an angle with the horizontal (Lee et
al., 1995) and flexible tubing coiled around a vertical
cylindrical frame work (Borowitzka, 1999; Robinson,
1987). The other type is the flat plate photobioreactors,
which are usually erected at an angle with the hori-
zontal, and in some cases, the bioreactors are vertical
to the ground (Hu et al., 1996; Pulz, 1994; Tredici
et al., 1991). Monoculture of Chlorella, Spirulina and
other microalgae has been successfully maintained in
enclosed tubular and flat plate photobioreactors. How-
ever, due to the large surface area to volume ratio of
these photobioreactors, the culture system could not
be sterilized efficiently by heat (such as high-pressured
steam). Chemical sterilizing agents, such as oxidising
agents could not effectively eliminate bacterial con-
taminant in the photobioreactors. Often, it is necessary
to flash out the residual chemical sterilizing agents by
large volume of sterilized clean water. Most of the
photobioreactors may not satisfy the Good Manufac-
turing Practice (GMP) requirements for pharmaceut-
ical products. Commercial production of microalgal
products using enclosed tubular and flat plate photobi-
oreactors may be limited to those that are consumed as
food, feed and their additivies. That is, products in the
range of medium value and medium volume demand.
The narrow light path (1.2–12.3 cm, Table 1) in
enclosed tubular and flat plate bioreactors allows cell
concentration to reach a higher value of up to about
20 g L−1 and a volumetric biomass productivity of
0.25–3.64 g L−1 d−1 (Table 1) in outdoor fed batch
cultures. High turbulence achievable in tubular and flat