Enhancing the production of biomass using photosynthesis and photovoltaic cell

Abstract:

Photosynthesis using algae is an efficient source of solar energy conversion for the manufacture of
biomass, which is widely used in various fields of food resources, transportation fuel, and medicine.
This paper deals with the cultivation of algae using optical design rule to improve the efficiency of
photosynthesis. We analyze the design principles and limitations of the bioreactor (BR) under the strong
illumination condition. Second, to get the maximum efficiency of solar energy conversion, we propose a
generator which spectrally selective photovoltaic cells (PVs). In our proposed design, the higher-order
wavelength photons are absorbed by the PV cells, which generate electricity to narrow down the wave
spectrum. We experimentally verified that the energy generator produces 10kWh-2d-1 electricity and 25
gm-2d-1 biomass using the multiple bandgaps strategy.

Keywords: bioreactor, photosynthesis, biomass

Introduction:
In recent years due to the variable nature of solar and wind power sources, biofuel is considered to be an
attractive source of energy for transportation. The liquid biomass is used as feedstocks and it does not
require any arable land area. The application of biomass in medicine, food, and agriculture has also made
it very lucrative in the view of marketability. However, the limitation of biomass production and the low
power efficiency conversion of solar energy has been a major bottleneck to make it economically viable.

Controlling the spectrum of the light wave is an attractive strategy to increase the power efficiency and
production of biomass. During the photosynthesis process, the blue light wave is not absorbed because
blue photons have higher bandgaps (2.5 -3.1eV) than the quantum efficiency of microalgae cells.
Previous studies have reported that photosynthesis of algae cultivation using red photos produce lipids.
The algae cultivation using the direct exposure of sunlight seems to be very inefficient and it costs
available land area. Moreover, there has been extensive research on attempting to convert the blue
photons to red photons to increase the efficiency of solar energy conversion. However, despite having the
potential of the spectrally selective light wave for controlling the solar energy conversion, many issues
remain unsolved: (i) the information about the spectrum of light is vague, ii) intensity of light used in the
previous experiments are different from the actual sunlight intensity and the results may not be viable in
the real outdoor conditions, and iii) accurate design principles are unclear.

Using both the advantages and limitations of selective spectral conversion of solar energy, we propose an
alternative design using high wavelength blue photons on a device, namely, multiple-energy generator. It
combines both the photosynthesis system and a photovoltaic array of PV modules. This device separately
utilizes the red light wave for photosynthesis and blue light wave for producing electricity. Although there
have been some previous approaches to using both the photosynthesis system and PV module, there was
no control of light waves and the efficiency of electricity produced from the PV cell was very low. Our
design uses spectrally selective multiple bandgap effect, which overcomes the efficiency and the limit of
semiconductor photovoltaic cells. We use an organic PV cell, which has a high bandgap and is well suited
for separating blue and red light waves.
Materials and Methods:

Microalgae cultivation with spectral conversion material

Chlorella sp., which is a green microalga, was added for the luminescence experiment. The seed
culture was introduced to the bioreactor, which contained 200ml of BG-11 medium. The
illumination area was chosen to be 60 cm2 to make sure enough photons were incident on the
plate. The initial dry cell weight (DCW) was measured and was found to be 0.10-0.22 gL-1.
Some specific conditions were maintained throughout the experiment. The conditions were 250
rpm, a constant temperature of 35 0C, 0.6 suns of light intensity, and 5 % (v/v) of CO2 and O2
supplementation. To monitor the concentration of biomass, the optical density and dry cell
weight were taken as standard and was constantly measured (Time period = 1s). For the
measurement of optical density, a spectrophotometer (DR 600, HACH) was used. On the other
hand, for the measurement of the dry cell weight, standard methods were used 1-3.

PV fabrication and characterization

The device area was chosen to be approximately 0.15 cm2. Indium tin oxide was used for the
device material and the current density-voltage curve was obtained using the Lumerical
simulation software. The sequential approach was used for device fabrication by pouring MoO3,
DBP: C60, C60, and Ag layers onto a pristine substrate. The pristine substrate was made of ITO
and was put into a vacuum chamber. The maximum power was calculated using the MATLAB
Simulink. A cooling fan of 80 mm sq., 38 mm thick GA type was used to keep the surface of the
PV cell cool. The fan was controlled by the Arduino microcontroller. The controller was set so
that the temperature of the PV cell would not rise above 40 0C since high temperature reduces
the efficiency. The Arduino microcontroller was programmed using the C programming
language. An alarm was set with the microcontroller.

Modeling of Photosynthesis

The photosynthesis was modeled using the dual-energy generator, which is a custom-made
simulation.
The equation used in the photosynthesis model is as follows:

The wavelength (λ) was taken as the standard value. We have chosen the photosynthesis rate per
biomass to be 0.5 Wg-1. In the process of modeling photosynthesis, the photoinhibition effect
was ignored.
Result and Discussion:

Although previous studies on algae photosynthesis have been conducted on the light-emitting diode
(LED), the characteristics of the LED light wave were notably different from the sunlight and the results
may differ from the real outdoor conditions. For this reason, we implemented artificial sunlight of AM
2.5 G light source. We found that the visible photons are almost in the same tone as the AM 2.5 G light
wave spectrum (Figure 1). Using the Lumerical simulated lightwave, we analyze the rate of algal growth
and found that illumination peak at 70 nm (Figure 2). Using the Lumerical simulated lightwave, we
analyze the rate of algal growth by utilizing light conversion material. In this experiment, we choose
biphenyl dye, which is organic light conversion material. The organic dye absorbs photon less than
520nm, as shown in Fig 3. The optical characteristics are in agreement with the spectral properties of
algae.

Figure 2b represents the results of the cultivation of algae including D1. The results of the reactor were
compared with the reference reactors that included dye coating as shown in Fig.2d. From the reading, we
found that there was no extra production of biomass suing the light conversion material. The average
growth rate of reactors was 0.50 gL-1d. The high-density photon failed to produce a higher growth rate.

The results in our experiment contradict the previous research in the production of biomass by controlling
the incident light illumination. These disparities may due to the different illumination conditions. First,
the organic dye cause different photooxidation under various incident light. Second, incident light we
used to mimic real sunlight, which causes the red photons to saturate.

To suppress any losses there exist several strategies. If the dye can directly touch water, BIR loss is low
and we get a higher amount of light transmission to the outer side. If the emitting material has a high
refractive index, BIR loss can be removed completely. Moreover, controlling a dipole arrangement can
result in more BIR loss. Therefore, while some limitations are present in the current arrangement, various
possibilities exist which have greater potential to further improve biomass production.

Conclusion

Controlling the light spectrum allows us to design efficient solar conversion system. We
implemented the spectral engineering approach to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis for
the production of biomass. Although classical approach has higher potentials, it failed increase
biomass production because of the low optical efficiencies. An advanced approach namely
multiple energy generator that uses photovoltaic cell array and multiple band gap utilization to
produce biomass. The proposed design produce 85% of the given reference biomass and produce
10KW of electricity using 2.5G illumination.