US 12,305,151 B2
Photobioreactor, in particular for the production of micro-organisms such as microalgae
Anita Meier, Weichering (DE)
Appl. No. 17/616,796
Filed by Anita Meier, Weichering (DE)
PCT Filed Jun. 3, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/065280
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 6, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/245149, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 10, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2019 114 979.7 (DE), filed on Jun. 4, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0315874 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. C12M 1/00 (2006.01); C12M 3/00 (2006.01)
CPC C12M 21/02 (2013.01) [C12M 23/02 (2013.01); C12M 23/34 (2013.01); C12M 23/44 (2013.01); C12M 31/10 (2013.01)] 33 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A photobioreactor being a closed reactor, the photobioreactor comprising:
a plurality of upwardly open reactor vessels configured for accommodating a nutrient medium;
a top wall of the photobioreactor being a one-piece or a multi-piece top wall for closing the reactor vessels;
at least some of said reactor vessels being formed as individual vessels which, in cross section, have a U-shape with a front wall extending in vertical axis direction, a back wall, spaced apart from said front wall in a longitudinal direction and also extending in the vertical axis direction, and a bottom wall connecting said front and back walls to one another at a bottom of the vessel;
said reactor vessels that are formed as individual vessels being arranged one after another in the longitudinal direction in such a way that a front reactor vessel has an at least regionally light-transmissive back wall adjacent to an at least regionally light-transmissive front wall of a rear reactor vessel, with a formation of a gap therebetween, wherein free end regions of said front and back walls adjacent one another have a common flow-over wall region which closes said gap from above, and which is formed with at least one vessel flow-over opening between said adjacent reactor vessels;
said flow-over wall region extending up to said top wall or to at least one piece of said multi-piece top wall and being adjacent thereto;
at least one lighting element disposed in said gap between mutually adjacent reactor vessels, said at least one lighting element being formed to emit light through a respectively assigned, at least regionally light-transmissive front wall and/or back wall into one of said mutually adjacent reactor vessels or into both said mutually adjacent reactor vessels;
a partition wall in each of said reactor vessels that are formed as individual vessels, said partition wall, proceeding from said bottom wall, extending upward in the vertical axis direction to said top wall and being adjacent thereto, with said partition wall dividing said reactor vessel into a front reactor chamber and a rear reactor chamber; and
said partition wall, in a near-bottom-wall region of said partition wall that is adjacent and/or connected to said bottom wall, being formed with at least one partition-wall flow-through opening between said front and rear reactor chambers.