Potential of household photobioreactor for algae cultivation

Abstract

Biotechnology harbors stunning potential to provide cutting-edge solutions that can mitigate arising environmental issues which impact developing countries more severely. Although considerable projects have been implemented in these developing nations to reduce the consequences of climate change, global warming, and food insecurity, most of the initiatives are deemed unsustainable or unfulfilling. Consequently, millions of individuals are still suffering from unhealthy environments and others have limited access to clean technologies. Accordingly, this manuscript is developed to act as a one-stop source for technical perspectives of microalgae cultivation and proposes the potential of scaling down of a photobioreactor (PBR) from industrial to household level to alleviate adverse environmental implications. The household PBR proposal is concerned with microalgae cultivation that contributes to mitigating CO2 from the surrounding environment and synthesizing a product that could be of high nutritional value. Additionally, the business model of household PBR is developed in accordance to low and middle-income countries’ demands to facilitate future projects in this scope. The value proposition of this model relies on decreasing climate change impacts, enhancing wellbeing, and providing natural supplements. Scale of economy, appropriate technology, and socio-economic challenges for household PBR are highlighted. HIGHLIGHTS Technical perspectives of microalgae cultivation (species selection, design parameters, types of photobioreactor, downstream processing technologies).; Resources recovery that exists in wastewater through algae cultivation.; Potential of scaling down the industrial PBR to household level.; Challenges and opportunities for algae cultivation industry on a small scale including technical and socio-economic aspects.;

Keywords

• algae cultivation
• climate change
• household scale
• microalgae
• photobioreactor