Implications of fundamental aspects of purple phototrophic bacteria for process upscaling
Résumé
Purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB) have a great potential for resource recovery from wastewater thanks to their photoheterotrophic capabilities. This work puts together available information on PPB biochemical fundamentals and the latest results from pilot-scale PPB cultivation, aiming to point research towards realising PPB full-scale implementation, with a focus on reactor design. PPB have two main requirements for an efficient phototrophic growth in enriched cultures: (i) a sufficient supply of near-infrared light and (ii) anaerobic conditions. Recent results show that effective light penetration in PPB cultures does not exceed 5-10 cm, implying that PPB open ponds (OPs) will be shallow (increasing O2 diffusion), and photobioreactors (PBRs) will be thin (increasing capital costs). Results suggests that PPB OPs operation might be more challenging than for algae, tipping the balance towards the application of PBRs. Cost analyses must be performed using reliable data.
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