Microalgae Production

Photobioreactors for algae production

Microalgae for food, feed, cosmetics, health, green chemistry and biofuel are one of the main terrestrial applications of MELiSSA’s photobioreactor research. A high-productivity photobioreactor, developed with Université Clermont Auvergne and Nantes Université, is available for commercial development.

A flat-panel photobioreactor in MELiSSA research.

AlgoSolis

Related research and pilot-scale production take place at AlgoSolis, an R&D facility dedicated to a sustainable microalgae industry and to new technologies for microalgae culture and refining.

Why this photobioreactor design is different

The efficiency gain comes from internal lighting: cylindrical tubes or lateral diffusive optical fibres deliver a constant incident light flux, set close to the optimum for the culture rather than simply maximising light intensity. An air-lift design handles gas injection, giving good mixing and mass transfer at low shear stress and low energy use, so the same architecture works with artificial lighting or with solar collection.

The gain grows with scale: roughly 1.5 to 2 times at laboratory scale (up to 20 litres) and 2 to 4 times at pilot scale (50 to 300 litres), with the largest gains expected at industrial scale (1 m³ and above). Solar-powered variants use very little energy.