Productivity of outdoor algal cultures in enclosed tubular photobioreactor

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Abstract
At quasi‐steady‐state outdoor cyclic fed batch cultures of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, the growth irradiance incidented on the tubular photobioreactor increased about fivefold between 9:00 a.m. and noon. Overheating of the cultures was observed, resulting in decreasing biomass output rate when culture temperature went above 40°C. In cultures with temperature control, the quasi‐steady‐state output rate of all cultures increased throughout the day and leveled off in the late afternoon in high‐density cultures. The daily area output rate was proportional to the density of the cultures. The specific growth rate of the light‐limited cultures increased only marginally (20%) in the morning. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.