JPH05146287A - Culture unit for organism by photosynthesis - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the subject culture unit good in handleability with effective light introduction, suppressed in heat transfer to a minimum by providing a culture tank as a metallic vessel of virtually inverted truncated conical shape, also providing its inner surface with a mirror, and by annularly setting up a lighting equipment on the upper part of the culture tank. CONSTITUTION:In the subject culture unit equipped with a culture tank 1 and a lighting equipment 4 for illuminating its inside, the culture tank body 1 is provided as a metallic vessel of inverted truncated conical shape with a vertical angle of ca.6, and the inner surface of this vessel is planished through e.g. buffabrasive finishing or electrolytically abrasive finishing into a mirror surface 1M; a cover 2 is fixed with bolts and nuts at the upper end of the culture tank body 1 and an annular light transmitting member 3 made of e.g. heat-resistant reinforced glass is put in between the cover 2 and the culture tank body 1, and a lighting equipment 4, an annular fluorescent lamp is set up through e.g. a supporting member above the cover 2. The illuminating light from the lighting equipment 4 is transmitted, via the opening 2a of the cover 2 through the light- transmitting member 3, thereby the light is efficiently introduced into the culture tank 1 packed with an organism tissue for photosynthesis.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a culturing apparatus for photosynthetic organisms, and more particularly to a culturing apparatus for photosynthetic organisms that can efficiently guide light from a lighting device to photosynthetic organism tissues.

[0002]

Photosynthesis is mainly carried out by green plants and algae, but also by photosynthetic bacteria. A photosynthetic organism culturing device has been developed in order to positively perform photosynthesis carried out by these two organism groups in the device and to cultivate biological tissues and organisms. In this culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms, it is important to efficiently irradiate biological tissue with light.

Next, a conventional culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms is shown in FIG.
It will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an incubator adopting the irradiation method from the side wall of the culture tank. In the figure, reference numeral 2
Reference numeral 1 denotes a glass culture tank, and outside the culture tank 21,
A plurality of lighting devices 22 such as straight tube fluorescent lamps are arranged so as to surround the culture tank 21. The lighting device 22 is divided into two halves (covers) 2 connected by a hinge 23.
4 are attached to these illuminating devices 22 and
Inspection and maintenance can be performed by opening the box as shown by the phantom line.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing an incubator adopting an in-tank illumination system. The incubator shown in the figure is provided with an illuminating device 33 such as a fluorescent lamp which is waterproofed by a globe 32 in a culture tank 31.

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing an incubator adopting an illumination system from above the culture tank. An illuminating device 43 is arranged at the upper end of the culture tank 41 via a translucent member 42. There is.

[0007]

However, in the incubator employing the side wall illumination system shown in FIG. 4, the light from the illumination device 22 passes through the glass wall surface of the culture tank 21 and is guided to the biological tissue. That is, since the light from the illuminating device 22 is incident on the glass wall surface having the convex curved surface, it is totally reflected or partially reflected by the glass wall surface depending on the incident angle, and the light is efficiently emitted. There is a problem that it cannot lead to biological tissues. In addition, although the incubator is generally steam sterilized, when it comes to an incubator with a capacity of 300 liters (liter) or more, there is a problem not only in heat resistance but also in mechanical strength because a glass culture tank is used. Yes, there is a difficulty in handling. In addition, the outer cover (cover) 24 to which a lighting device such as a fluorescent lamp is attached needs to have a structure such as a double-split structure that can be opened and closed as shown in the example for inspection and maintenance, which complicates the structure. There is a problem. Further, it is difficult to attach a jacket for controlling the temperature in the tank to the culture tank, and if there is a jacket, the illumination efficiency becomes extremely poor.

On the other hand, the incubator adopting the in-tank illumination system shown in FIG. 5 has an advantage that it is possible to perform illumination with high illuminance even in a deep layer. As described above, there is a problem that a special glove is required and the structure becomes complicated. Further, since the heating element (illuminating device) is installed inside the culture tank, there is a problem that the medium is heated.

In order to solve the above problems, there is also used a system in which an illuminating device is installed outside and the light is guided into the tank by an optical fiber. In this case, since the purpose of the optical fiber is originally to transmit the light in the axial direction by utilizing the straightness of the light, it is easy to obtain the light amount at the terminal, but the light amount on the outer peripheral surface tends to be insufficient. Therefore, in order to illuminate the inside of the tank, each part of the optical fiber itself is provided with a prismatic property to disperse the light by utilizing refraction. Therefore, energy loss is high and efficiency is low. In addition, there is a problem that the amount of transmitted light cannot be high because the bundle of thin tubes generally has a circular cross section.

Further, in the incubator adopting the illumination system from above the tank shown in FIG. 6, the larger the tank becomes, the less the light amount to the deeper layer becomes when there is no internal circulation such as an air lift. There is a point. In addition, there is a lot of light that does not directly illuminate living organisms, that is, most of the illumination is concentrated on the bottom surface, and the primary reflected light that is illuminated on the tank wall is also concentrated on the bottom surface.
There is a problem that the light is not uniformly dispersed in the tank.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and an object thereof is to efficiently guide light from a lighting device to photosynthetic biological tissue and to transfer heat into a tank. It is an object of the present invention to provide a culture device for a photosynthetic organism which has a high mechanical strength and is easy to handle and can be minimized.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms of the present invention is a culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms, which comprises a culture tank and an illumination device for illuminating the inside of the culture tank, The culture tank is formed of a substantially inverted frustoconical metal container, a mirror surface is provided on the inner surface of the metal container, the illumination device is formed in an annular shape, and is arranged above the culture tank. It is what

[0013]

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the illumination from the lighting device is introduced into the tank from above the culture tank, a part of the light directly reaches the photosynthetic biological tissue, and a part of the culture tank. Since the light is reflected by the inner mirror surface and reaches the photosynthetic biological tissue in the form of primary reflected light, the light from the lighting device can be guided into the tank in a uniformly dispersed state, and photosynthesis of the photosynthetic biological tissue in the tank can be performed. Can be performed efficiently. Moreover, since the lighting device is installed outside the culture tank, heat transfer to the inside of the tank can be minimized.

[0014]

EXAMPLES The culturing apparatus for photosynthetic organisms according to the present invention will be specifically described below based on the examples shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

Culturing of photosynthetic organisms is generally performed for the following purposes. (1) Photosynthetic bacteria such as Rhodospirillum, Euglena (Eu
To grow and collect organisms from the phylum Phyla such as glena) and Chlorella, and to redifferentiate higher plants into tissue culture to form seedlings. (2) Use as a nursery bed when algae, bryophytes, photosynthetic bacteria, etc. are adherently cultured to obtain their metabolites or used for purification of wastewater.

In the case of (1), a so-called suspension culture method is generally used in which a circulation is carried out by using a stirrer or an air lift, and in the case of (2), an immobilized carrier is used.

The present invention can be applied to any of the methods (1) and (2), but specific examples of the case (2) in which the immobilized carrier is used will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. The culture device is provided with a culture tank body 1, and the culture tank body 1 is made of a stainless steel (SUS316) metal container having excellent corrosion resistance and heat resistance. The culture tank body 1 has an inverted truncated cone shape with an apex angle of about 6 °, and its inner surface is subjected to mirror finishing such as buffing and electrolytic polishing to form a mirror surface 1M. A lid 2 is fixed to the upper end of the culture tank body 1 with bolts and nuts, and an annular light-transmitting member 3 made of heat-resistant tempered glass is interposed between the lid 2 and the culture tank body 1. There is. Further, an illumination device 4 composed of a circular fluorescent lamp is installed above the lid body 2 via a support member or the like,
Illumination from the lighting device 4 is introduced into the tank through the opening 2a of the lid 2 and the translucent member 3.

On the other hand, a filter 7 is provided in the culture tank main body 1, and the culture solution and the culture enter the tank through the supply port 5 provided on the lower side wall of the culture tank main body 1, and the filter 7 Through the discharge port 6 provided in the lid body 2 to be discharged to the outside of the tank and circulated again. It should be noted that oxygen (O ₂ ), carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) and the like are supplied to the culture medium before the supply port 5 (upstream side). The filter 7 is a metal filter, which is generally formed by winding wires and has a gap of about 50 μ between the wires.
Those having a gap of about a degree are preferable. Further, the immobilization carrier 10 is housed in the culture tank body 1, and the immobilization carrier 1
For 0, a porous cylindrical ceramic cartridge having innumerable pores is used.

The culture tank main body 1 is provided with an upper air bleeder 8 at the upper part thereof, which can be used both as an air bleeder in the tank and an air bleeder for steam sterilization, and an intermediate part thereof can be closed by a blind lid during culturing. A peep window 9 is provided, and a drain valve 11 is provided at the bottom thereof. The drain valve 11 can also be used as a vent in the air lift type. In this case, the immobilization carrier 10 can be removed, and the filter can be appropriately shortened.

Next, the operation of the culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms constructed as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

Illumination from the annular illumination device 4 is introduced into the culture tank 1 through the translucent member 3 and directly reaches the immobilization carrier 10 as indicated by solid lines A, B and C on the right side of FIG. At the same time, it is reflected by the mirror surface 1M of the culture tank body 1,
As shown by phantom lines D, E, F, G, etc. on the left side of FIG. 3, it reaches the immobilization carrier 10 in the form of primary reflected light. Thus, the illumination from the lighting device 4 is uniformly dispersed in the tank in the form of direct light and reflected light, and photosynthesis of photosynthetic biological tissues and organisms can be efficiently performed in the tank. Further, all the illumination light from the illuminating device 4 toward the culture tank 1 can be introduced into the tank, and as in the conventional glass culture tank (see FIG. 4), the light is totally or partially reflected by the outer wall surface into the tank. The drawback of not being able to introduce light can be eliminated.

The lighting device 4 is installed outside the tank,
Moreover, since the interior of the tank is partitioned by the translucent member 3, heat transfer to the interior of the tank is minimized, and the waterproof device is unnecessary. Further, since the lighting device 4 is attached to the upper portion of the lid body 2, the lighting device 4 can be easily attached to and removed from the culture tank 1.

Further, since the culture tank 1 is made of metal such as stainless steel, it has excellent heat resistance and mechanical strength, steam sterilization can be easily performed, and the size of the tank can be easily increased.

Next, the application range of the present invention will be listed. (1) The present invention can be applied to the case where the inside of the culture tank is hollow, the case where there is a filter for retaining the culture, the case where there is a draft tube for improving internal circulation, and the case where an attachment carrier is used in combination. Is. (2) In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the generatrix of the inverted cone of the culture tank is a straight line, but it can also be applied to the case of a pseudo cone such as a hyperbola or a parabola. The apex angle of the cone is preferably in the range of 5 ° to 30 °. (3) The present invention can be applied regardless of whether the culture method is a batch method, a continuous method, or a perfusion method.

[0026]

As described above, according to the culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms of the present invention, the illumination from the lighting device is introduced into the culture vessel from above the culture vessel, and a part of the light directly reaches the tissue of the photosynthetic organism. At the same time, a part of it reaches the photosynthetic biological tissue in the form of primary reflected light by being reflected by the mirror surface of the inner surface of the culture tank, so that the light from the lighting device can be guided into the tank in a uniformly dispersed state. The photosynthesis of photosynthetic biological tissue can be efficiently performed in the tank. Moreover, since the lighting device is installed outside the culture tank, heat transfer to the inside of the culture tank is suppressed to a minimum, and a waterproof device is unnecessary.

Further, according to the present invention, since the culture tank is formed of a metal container, it has excellent heat resistance and mechanical strength, steam sterilization can be easily performed, and the size of the tank can be easily increased. Is.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the lighting device is mounted above the culture tank, the lighting device can be easily attached and detached, and the lighting device can be easily inspected and maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of a culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of the culture apparatus for photosynthetic organisms according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional incubator for photosynthetic organisms.

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a conventional incubator for photosynthetic organisms.

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a conventional incubator for photosynthetic organisms.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Incubator main body 2 Lid body 3 Light transmitting member 4 Illumination device 5 Supply port 6 Discharge port 7 Filter 8 Upper air vent 9 Peephole 10 Immobilization carrier 11 Drain valve

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A culture apparatus for a photosynthetic organism, comprising a culture tank and an illuminating device for illuminating the inside of the culture tank, wherein the culture tank is formed of a substantially inverted frustoconical metal container, A culturing device for photosynthetic organisms, characterized in that a mirror surface is provided on the inner surface of the container, the illuminating device is formed in an annular shape, and is arranged above the culturing tank. 2. The apparatus for cultivating a photosynthetic organism according to claim 1, wherein the truncated cone of the culture tank has an apex angle of 5 ° to 30 °.