KR101404223B1 - Photobiological culturing system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a photobiological culturing system comprising; a culture panel main body which has a culture space so that microalgae is injected to the inside and is cultured; a photobiological reactor which is installed on the lower side of the culture panel main body to pass through the culture space in a transverse direction and has a gas supply pipe which discharges the injected gas into the culture space; a medium supply unit which supplies a medium into the culture panel main body of the photobiological reactor; and a gas supply unit which supplies gas through the gas supply pipe. The culture panel main body is installed on a structure such as a building installed outside, a noise prevention wall, a park formative structure, a wall, a power plant, and a steel mill. According to the photobiological culturing system, the structure installed outside is used. Therefore, the restriction regarding production site retention can be relieved and the availability of the structure can be increased.

Description

[0002] Photobiological culturing system [0003]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a photobiological culture system, and more particularly, to a photobiological culture system in which a photobioreactor is integrated with a structure.

Recently, carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) emitted by industry has been cited as a main cause of global warming, and studies for utilizing microalgae as carbon dioxide immobilization and bio energy source have been actively carried out.

Microalgae have been used for the purpose of producing useful materials such as fuel materials, cosmetics, feeds, food coloring materials and medicinal raw materials since they can perform various functions such as treatment of wastewater and immobilization of carbon dioxide due to various abilities , And valuable high-value-added materials have been continuously discovered and are expanding their use.

There are many factors such as composition, temperature, pH, and luminous intensity of medium, which affect the biomass weight and the useful product of microalgae. Among them, light has the largest proportion of the light microalgae.

In general, a device for culturing photosynthetic microalgae for the purpose of immobilization of carbon dioxide can be roughly divided into an open system (open system) and a closed system (photobioreactor). In the case of an outdoor mass culture apparatus including a pond, a reaction facility such as a lake or a large pond has been used, and it is commercialized in some countries.

However, this type of culture facility has the advantages of low initial investment and easy maintenance, but it is difficult to clean, separation and purification, low cell concentration, large substrate (especially nitrogen source), high water quality and quantity demand, irregular climate The installation is very limited due to problems such as conditions and expensive labor costs. In particular, since the effective light transmission is not performed in the culture apparatus, the growth rate of the cells is slow, the growth yield of the cells is low, and a wide installation space is required in order to remove a large amount of carbon dioxide.

In order to solve the problems of such an outdoor mass culture apparatus, a high-concentration culture is carried out through a small-sized reactor to produce an amount equal to or greater than that of the outdoor mass culture apparatus, Can be produced.

Currently developed types include general stirrer type reactors, plate reactors, tubular reactors, column type reactors and the like. All of these reactors are most important in the design of reactors for efficient light transmission. When the concentration of microalgae cells is low, medium or gas injection is the most important factor for cell proliferation. However, when the concentration of microalgae cells is reached, luminous intensity is the most important factor. This is because the higher the concentration, the shorter the transmission length of the light.

That is, the light applied during the microalgae culture grows larger as the microalgae grow. As a result, the microalgae on the surface of the reactor can be supplied with the light, but the microalgae inside the reactor can be microalgae The shadow effect is generated, so that the light amount required for growth can not be supplied sufficiently.

However, most of the microalgae photobioreactors designed to date have not been able to overcome this, and their production efficiency has been lowered compared with other microbial bioreactors. To overcome this and efficiently transmit light. Recently, a photobioreactor using an internal light source has been studied. As a widely used photobioreactor, a tubular photobioreactor using sunlight as an external light source and a photorefractive bioreactor for a water mold are known. In order to maximize the irradiation area exposed to sunlight and shorten the light transmission distance to the inside of the culture liquid, the reactor has a structure in which a narrow and long rectangular or cylindrical pipe is tightly adhered closely to circulate the culture liquid.

       Korean Patent No. 0933741 discloses a photobioreactor for mass culture of microalgae. The posted reactor uses LEDs and flexible LEDs and has a structure in which the light source directly contacts the culture solution. The photobioreactor thus constructed can not fundamentally solve the problem that the heat generated from the light source is directly transferred to the culture liquid.

Korean Patent Publication No. 2009-0055170 discloses a cylindrical photobioreactor, and Korean Patent No. 0897019 discloses a photobioreactor for culturing highly efficient microalgae. This reactor has a structure that irradiates sunlight to a photobioreactor using a reflective condenser and an optical fiber. U.S. Application No. 2009/0211150 discloses a technical construction for producing biomass and biodiesel by culturing a microalga, a microalga, at a high concentration using a tubular photobioreactor, and U.S. Application No. 2005/0255584 A tubular photobioreactor having a transparent material partition and an increased surface area for light efficiency improvement is disclosed.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,876 discloses a tubular photobioreactor in which the condensing efficiency of solar light is improved by using a complex parabolic collector.

     In the light guide plate used in the conventional photobioreactor configured as described above, a scattering pattern for diffusing light is formed or printed on the surface of the light guide plate. Therefore, when the light guide plate is installed inside the photobioreactor, There is a problem that the photobiological organism adheres to the site, the light transmittance is relatively lowered, and the uniformity of illumination also decreases with time.

However, in this case, the structure is relatively complicated, it is difficult to secure a relatively large culture space, and the degree of design freedom of the photobiological incubator can not be increased.

On the other hand, there is a need for a culture structure that can alleviate the constraint on the production site by making the photobioreactor part of the outdoor structure or integrally installing the structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a photovoltaic bioreactor integrally installed in a structure to be installed in an outdoors, thereby alleviating restrictions on a production site and improving a cultivation efficiency, And to provide an optical bio-culture system capable of improving the bio-culture system.

In order to attain the above object, the present invention provides an optical bio-culture system comprising a culture panel main body provided with a culture space for micro-algae to be injected therein, A photobioreactor having a gas supply pipe installed to penetrate the substrate and discharging the introduced gas into the culture space; A culture medium supply unit adapted to supply a culture medium into the culture panel body of the photobioreactor; And a gas supply unit for supplying a gas through the gas supply pipe, wherein the culture panel body is installed in a structure formed outdoors.

The structure may be a building, a noise barrier, a park building, a wall, a power plant, or a steel mill.

A temperature regulator capable of regulating the temperature of the culture solution stored in the photobioreactor by heat exchange with the culture medium feed pipe leading from the culture medium supply unit to the photobioreactor; A temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the culture medium or the temperature of the culture medium via the photobioreactor; And a control unit for controlling the temperature adjusting unit so that the temperature of the culture liquid of the photobioreactor is maintained within a predetermined temperature range by using the temperature information detected from the temperature detecting unit.

Preferably, the culture panel body is provided with a culture medium inlet port through which the culture medium can be supplied to the culture space and a culture medium outlet port through which the culture medium stored in the culture space is withdrawn. The culture medium supply section contains the culture medium, A culture medium accommodated in the culture container, and adapted to supply the accommodated culture medium to the culture medium inlet through the culture medium supply pipe; A circulation tube connected to the culture medium supply pipe from the culture solution outlet; A storage tube for branching from the circulation tube and transferring the culture solution to the storage container; A plurality of valves installed on the storage tube, the circulation tube, and the medium supply tube, respectively, and controlled by the controller to circulate the path of the culture solution through the circulation tube or to be discharged to the storage tube; Respectively.

The concentration detector may further include a concentration detector installed in the circulation tube and detecting the concentration of the culture liquid. When the concentration information of the culture liquid received from the concentration detector is equal to or higher than the set target concentration, Controls the valve to be discharged through the storage tube, and controls the medium supply unit to supply the medium to the culture panel main body.

The light guide plate may include a light guide plate member made of a transparent synthetic resin material, and a light guide plate member formed of a transparent synthetic resin material. The light guide plate member may include a light guide plate member, And a plurality of scatterers formed by inducing deformation.

According to the photobiological culture system of the present invention, it is possible to utilize a structure installed outdoors, so that it is possible to alleviate the restriction on the production site and to improve the usability of the structure.

1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a building to which the photobiological culture system according to the present invention is applied,
FIG. 2 is a control system diagram for explaining a culture liquid treatment process of the photobioreactor of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of the photobioreactor of FIG. 1,
FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the light guide plate of FIG. 3,
5 is a view for explaining the manufacturing process of the light guide plate of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a structure for introducing external light into the light guide plate of the photobioreactor of FIG. 3;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a photobiological culture system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a building to which the photobiological culture system according to the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a control system diagram for explaining a process of culturing the photobioreactor of FIG.

1, the photobiological culture system 100 includes a photobioreactor 10, a medium supply unit 110, a gas supply unit 130, a temperature detection unit 140, a concentration detection unit 150, a control unit 181, And a storage container 191.

A plurality of photobioreactors (10) are arrayed on the side of the building (1).

The photobioreactors 10 are installed to be supported through a support frame 3 coupled to the building 1 so as to be supported on the building 1.

The building 1 equipped with the photobioreactor 10 is applied as an example of a structure installed outdoors, and unlike the example shown in FIG. 1, the building 1 includes various types of buildings including a noise preventing wall, a park building structure, a wall, It is a matter of course that the photovoltaic reactor 10 may be installed in a structure or a part of the structure.

The photobioreactor 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5 together.

The photobioreactor 10 includes a plate-shaped culture panel main body 20 provided with a culture space so that microalgae can be injected into the inside of the culture bioreactor 10, and a culture space 21 in the lower part of the culture panel main body 20 in the lateral direction And a gas supply pipe (23) provided so as to penetrate and discharge the introduced gas into the culture space.

The culture panel main body 20 forms a culture space 21 and has a main body 20a having an upper portion opened and a cap 20a connected to the main body 20a at an upper portion of the main body 20a to close the culture space 21 20b.

The main body 20a is provided with an inlet port 24a for supplying the culture medium to the culture space 21 and a culture medium outlet port 25 for withdrawing the culture solution stored in the culture space 21, Respectively.

The cap 20b may be detachably coupled to or joined to the main body 20a.

The cap 20b is provided with a gas discharge port 28 for discharging the gas discharged from the culture space 21 and is provided with an optical fiber connection connector 29. [

On the other hand, a coating film of titanium oxide (TiO2) or the like may be formed on the inner surface of the culture panel body 20 in order to prevent microalgae from adhering to the inside. In addition, a blade 22 is provided inside the culture panel body 20 so that the culture liquid in the dispensing space 21 can be circulated by the upward force of the bubbles.

A light guide plate 50 for irradiating light irradiated from an external light source into the incubation space 21 is provided inside the culture panel body 20 of the photobioreactor 10, that is, inside the culture space 21.

As shown in FIG. 4, the light guide plate 50 has a plurality of scatterers 52 formed in a predetermined pattern in a light guide plate member 51 formed of a transparent synthetic resin material.

The scattering bodies 52 irradiate a laser beam inside the light guide plate member 51 using the laser irradiation head 61 connected to the laser beam generator 60 as shown in FIG. And locally absorbing the energy of the laser beam to induce optical deformation.

Preferably, the laser beam uses a high power laser from nanoseconds to femtoseconds. The laser beam generator 60 for generating such a laser beam preferably uses Ti: Sapphire or Nd: YAG.

The scattering body 52 may be formed in a circular shape or a polygonal shape, but not limited thereto, and may be a waveform, a linear shape, or the like capable of scattering external light.

The scattering body 52 formed on the light guide plate member 51 deforms the position of the focal point of the laser beam generated from the laser beam generator 60 in the thickness direction of the light guide plate member 51, Multiple layers (multiple) can be installed.

The scattering body 52 formed on the light guide plate member 51 scatters the light introduced from the side surface of the light guide plate, that is, the upper side surface 53, from the external light source into the culture space 21. The scattering body 52, (The density of the scattering body per unit area is higher) as the distance from the substrate 53 increases.

The difference in the distribution of the scattering bodies 52 is that the illuminance is relatively decreased as the distance from the upper surface 53 into which the light is introduced is relatively high to increase the light scattering rate in order to compensate for the lowering of the light intensity.

Needless to say, the culture panel body 20 may be formed of a synthetic resin material such as a scattering body like the light guide plate 50 described above.

It goes without saying that the light guide plate 50 may be fixed so as to divide and partition the accommodation space 21 of the culture panel body 20.

In this photobioreactor 10, when light irradiated from an external light source is incident through the upper surface of the light guide plate 50 in a state where culture liquid for culturing the organism is injected into the culture space, light is guided through the light guide plate 51 Is scattered by the scattering body 52 formed inside the light guide plate 50 and irradiated to the culture space 21 of the photobioreactor 10. [ In this process, since the scattering body 52 formed inside the light guide plate 50 is denser as the distance from the upper side surface 53, which is the light incident surface, becomes denser, the light incident from the light incident surface is incident on the light guide plate 50 It is possible to irradiate each part with uniform illumination.

Since the light guide plate 50 does not need to form a light scattering pattern for scattering light on the outer surface, it is possible to fundamentally prevent the photobioregulator from adhering to the surface of the light guide plate.

An external light irradiating device for irradiating external light to the light guide plate 50 includes a light condensing unit 80 composed of a lens for focusing sunlight as shown in Fig. 6, and a condensing unit 80 for condensing the light condensed from the light condensing unit 80 onto the light guide plate 50 The optical fiber 81 can be used.

The condensing unit 80 may be formed of a cylindrical type fresnel lens or a TIR concentrator. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the condensing unit 80 may be configured to condense solar light toward the optical fiber 81 Any structure is possible. An IR filter 82 (not shown) is provided between the condensing unit 80 and the optical fiber 81 or at the entrance side of the optical fiber 81 to block the infrared rays that can degrade the optical fiber 81 through heat generation without contributing to photosynthesis Is installed.

The IR filter 82 may be provided on the light incident surface of the light guide plate 50 and the light exit surface.

Unlike the example shown in FIG. 1, an external light emitting device for emitting external light to the light guide plate 50 may be a light emitting lamp (not shown) for irradiating light from the upper portion of the light guide plate 50.

Here, the light emitting lamp may be a light emitting diode module, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), a fluorescent lamp, or the like.

The culture medium supply unit 110 is capable of supplying the culture medium into the culture panel body 20 of the photobioreactor 10.

The culture medium supply unit 110 includes a culture medium container 111 in which a culture medium is accommodated and adapted to be supplied to the culture medium inlet 24a through the culture medium supply pipe 112.

The culture medium supply pipe 112 is provided so as to extend from the culture medium container 11 to the culture medium inlet port 24a.

The pump (P) 115 is provided on the culture medium supply pipe 112 so as to be capable of pumping the culture medium or the culture medium in the direction toward the culture medium injection port 24a.

The circulation tube 117 is connected to the culture medium supply port 112 from the culture solution outlet 25 so as to circulate the culture solution cultured in the photobioreactor 10.

In the illustrated example, the photobioreactors 10 are connected in series so that the mutual medium inlet 24a and the medium outlet 25 are interconnected, and the photobioreactor 10 at the extreme end is connected to the medium feed pipe 112, And the photobioreactor 10 at the final stage is connected to the circulation pipe 117. Unlike the example shown in the drawing, the photobioreactors 10 are connected in parallel to the circulation pipe 117 and the medium supply pipe 112, It can be constructed so as to be connected to the network.

The storage tube 118 is branched from the circulation tube 117 and is piped so that the culture liquid can be transferred to the storage container 191.

The first to fourth valves 121 to 124 are respectively installed on the medium supply pipe 112, the circulation pipe 117 and the storage pipe 118 and controlled by the control unit 181 to be described later, Circulated through the circulation pipe 117, or discharged to the storage tube 118. [0064]

The first valve 121 is installed to be capable of supplying and blocking the medium stored in the discharge vessel 111 to the discharge tube 112 and the second valve 122 is connected to the final stage of the photobioreactor 10 And the third valve 123 is installed on the circulation pipe 117 branched from the discharge pipe 112. The circulation pipe 117 is connected to the circulation pipe 117 via the circulation pipe 117, The culture medium supplied from the culture medium supply pipe 112 is prevented from flowing back to the circulation pipe 117, or the culture medium can circulate when the culture medium is circulated.

The fourth valve (124) is installed in the storage tube (118) so that the culture liquid can be discharged or blocked to the storage container (191).

The first to fourth valves 121 to 124) are solenoid valves.

The gas supply unit 130 is capable of supplying the gas through the gas supply pipe 23 and a gas supply container 131 in which the gas is stored to supply the gas to the gas supply pipe 23 is applied.

The gas supplied through the gas supply container 131 may be subjected to oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the organism to be cultivated.

Reference numeral 133 denotes a fifth valve provided to be capable of supplying or blocking gas from the gas supply container 131 to the gas supply pipe 23 under the control of the control unit 181. [

The temperature detector 140 is installed in the circulation tube 117 to detect the temperature of the culture liquid passing through the photobioreactor 10 and detects the temperature and outputs the detected temperature to the controller 181.

The temperature detection unit 140 may be constructed to detect the temperature outside the structure around the structure where the photobioreactor 10 is installed or to measure the temperature of the culture liquid stored in the culture panel body 20 Of course.

The concentration detector 150 is installed in the circulation tube 117 so as to detect the concentration of the culture liquid via the photobioreactor 10 and detects the concentration of the culture liquid and outputs the detected concentration to the controller 181.

The concentration detector 150 may be constructed to detect the concentration by various known methods such as a light transmission method in which a light source and a photodetector are mutually opposed to the circulation tube 117 so as to detect a change in light transmittance depending on the concentration of the culture liquid .

The temperature regulator 160 regulates the temperature of the culture liquid stored in the photobioreactor 10 by heat exchange with the medium feed pipe 112 leading from the medium feeder 110 to the photobioreactor 10.

The temperature adjusting unit 160 may be constructed so as to perform heat exchange with the medium supply pipe 112 by applying a refrigeration cycle structure having a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, and an expansion valve. In this case, the evaporator and the medium supply pipe 112 are mutually heat exchanged It is possible to apply the closely adhered structure so that the medium supply pipe 112 is heated or cooled by adjusting the circulation direction of the refrigerant.

It is needless to say that the temperature regulating unit 160 may apply a Peltier element (not shown) adhered to the medium supply pipe 112 and switch the polarity of the applied voltage to be heated or cooled.

The operation unit 183 can set the functions supported by the control unit 181 such as the culture conditions and the target concentration.

The control unit 181 circulates the culture liquid through the circulation pipe 117 at a predetermined cycle to detect the temperature and concentration of the culture liquid.

The control unit 181 controls the temperature regulator 160 so that the temperature of the culture fluid of the photobioreactor 10 is maintained within the set temperature range using the temperature information detected from the temperature detector 140. [

When the concentration information of the culture liquid received from the concentration detector 150 is equal to or higher than the set target concentration, the control unit 181 controls the second and third The pump 122 is controlled to be closed so that the first and fourth valves 121 and 124 are controlled to be opened and the pump 115 is operated so that the culture medium is discharged from the culture medium supply unit 110, (20) so that the culture liquid cultured in the culture panel body (20) is transferred to the storage container (191).

Such a photobiological culture system 100 can utilize a structure installed outdoors, which can alleviate a restriction on a production site, and provides an advantage that a structure can be utilized more efficiently.

10: photobioreactor 110: medium feeder
130: gas supply unit 140: temperature detection unit
150: Concentration detector 181:
191: Storage container

Claims (6)

delete delete A culture panel main body provided with a culture space so that microalgae can be injected into the inside of the culture chamber, and a gas supply unit installed at a lower portion of the culture chamber body to penetrate the culture space in a lateral direction, A photobioreactor having a supply line;
A culture medium supply unit adapted to supply a culture medium into the culture panel body of the photobioreactor;
A gas supply unit for supplying a gas through the gas supply pipe;
A temperature regulator capable of regulating a temperature of a culture liquid stored in the photobioreactor by heat exchange with a culture medium supply pipe leading from the culture medium supply unit to the photobioreactor;
A temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the culture medium or the temperature of the culture medium via the photobioreactor;
And a control unit for controlling the temperature adjusting unit to maintain the temperature of the culture liquid of the photobioreactor at a predetermined temperature range using the temperature information detected from the temperature detecting unit,
Wherein the culture panel body is installed in a structure formed outdoors. [Claim 4] The method according to claim 3, wherein the culture panel body is provided with a culture medium inlet port through which the culture medium can be supplied to the culture space and a culture solution outlet port through which the culture medium stored in the culture space is drawn out,
The medium supply unit
A culture container in which a culture medium is accommodated and adapted to be supplied to the culture medium inlet through the culture medium supply pipe;
A circulation tube connected to the culture medium supply pipe from the culture solution outlet;
A storage tube for branching from the circulation tube and transferring the culture solution to the storage container;
A plurality of valves installed on the storage tube, the circulation tube, and the medium supply tube, respectively, and controlled by the controller to circulate the path of the culture solution through the circulation tube or to be discharged to the storage tube; And a photobiological culture system. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising: a concentration detector installed in the circulation tube for detecting a concentration of the culture liquid;
The control unit controls the valve so that the culture liquid stored in the culture panel body is discharged through the storage tube when the concentration information of the culture liquid received from the concentration detection unit is equal to or higher than the set target concentration, And the culture medium is supplied to the culture panel main body. A culture panel main body provided with a culture space so that microalgae can be injected into the inside of the culture chamber, and a gas supply unit installed at a lower portion of the culture chamber body to penetrate the culture space in a lateral direction, A photobioreactor having a supply line;
A culture medium supply unit adapted to supply a culture medium into the culture panel body of the photobioreactor;
And a gas supply unit for supplying a gas through the gas supply pipe,
Wherein the culture panel body is installed in a structure formed outdoors,
And a light guide plate for irradiating the light irradiated from the external light source into the culture space,
Wherein the light guide plate comprises a light guide plate member made of a transparent synthetic resin material and a plurality of scattering members formed by inducing optical deformation in the light guide plate member using a laser beam.

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