| abstract |
As fossil energy costs increase, commercial attractiveness for the production of renewable energy using alternative means increases. Renewable energy can include any energy produced by a source such as biomass, solar energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, or wind power. Of these types of alternative energy sources, the production of biomass using photosynthetic autotrophs offers the additional advantage that biomass can be used to produce other high value products. The present invention provides devices and methods for the growth of photosynthetic autotrophs. The devices and methods of the present invention address problems associated with bioreactor design, photoautotrophic organism selection, photoautotrophic organism growth, biomass product extraction, and / or use of biomass products as a renewable energy source. Tackle. |