d.

what is the current development of research that has been develop?

Open industrial systems of the photobioreactor design. The first systems dedicated to
the cultivation of microalgae were artificial ponds, also called lagoons. This is the
simplest production system. It consists of a body of water between 20 and 40
centimeters deep without agitation. agitated basins were developed to avoid
sedimentation and thus optimize light distribution in the culture volume. Moreover,
this avoids the presence of concentration gradients or thermal stratification, reducing
the overall performance of the process. Even today, open systems are still the most
widely used on an industrial scale because of their low manufacturing cost and ease
of extrapolation. However, they are not suitable for all types of production. Indeed,
these systems are reserved for the production of extremophilic strains, because of
the risk of contamination by airborne microorganisms.

This cultivation system reduces the costs of biomass production and processing.
Indeed, since production is only dependent on the lighting area, a reduction in
thickness will have under identical conditions no impact on the quantity of biomass
produced. Agitation and separation of biomass from water will therefore be cheaper
due to the small amount of water to be treated. An industrial version of this concept
has been implemented in Portugal by the company A4F in 2014. This system
comprises a succession of four inclined planes for a total production area of 3000 m 2.

Current challenges that are hindering the research development

Circular systems are agitated via an arm with a size of the radius of the basin set in
motion by the axis. This type of basin has two major disadvantages, a nonoptimal
surface area (due to the circular shape) and difficulty in extrapolating beyond 1000
m2.They are not suitable for all types of production.