Stratified Microalgae Cultivation in Wastewater

The main purpose of our research is to find out the feasibility of growing different types of microalgae (autotrophic, heterotrophic, mixotrophic) in an open pond system for biofuel production and evaluating the CO2 capturing potential as a way of reducing greenhouse gases. Another goal of this research is to evaluate the increase of open pond depth from current 30-50 cm to 70-100 cm as a new method for reducing land usage resources and also wastewater treatment.

What Equipment we used:

- Digital Light Sensors

- Temperature Sensors

- Flow Sensor

- Mini Water Pump

Implementation of this project:

We can control the open pond system more effectively in the future if we use different level algae cultivation that can be changed based on the light density and CO2 availability in the pond.

Steps:

- Review the literatures and design the primary sketch

- Building the lab reactor and use the equipment in the for Lab condition

- Record the data (Light density, temperature, algal yields etc.)

- Use the equipment for out door model and modify the operation condition based on that.

Primary Results:

- Better algae yield for bio-fuel production

- More data available for controlling the system conditions

- Higher efficiency on operation 

Coding:

We used some available codes for our sensors:

Temperature Sensor:

Light Sensor:

Flow Sensor: