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Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country

Jose Gayo Pelaez, Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Orcid Logo, Alla Silkina Orcid Logo, Andrew Barron

Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy, Volume: 13

Swansea University Authors: Jose Gayo Pelaez, Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Orcid Logo, Alla Silkina Orcid Logo, Andrew Barron

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.clcb.2026.100209

Abstract

The equipment required for large-scale production of quality microalgal biomass is costly to set-up. To address this challenge a novel low-cost internally illuminated reactor ‘the Cube’ has been developed, which is suitable for deployment in high latitude countries with low natural light conditions....

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Published in: Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy
ISSN: 2772-8013
Published: Elsevier BV 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71537
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To address this challenge a novel low-cost internally illuminated reactor &#x2018;the Cube&#x2019; has been developed, which is suitable for deployment in high latitude countries with low natural light conditions. This innovative concept combines the use of low-cost materials, LED lighting, effective temperature and pH control technology to produce high quality algal biomass from industrial CO2 effluent at low initial capital cost. This study evaluated the ability of the cube by growing Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina). The reactor achieved biomass concentrations of 1.37 g L-1 and 80.5 mg L-1 day-1 productivity in a 1 m3vol that occupies 1 m2, with consistent productivity spanning 78 days, surpassing some of the existing most cost-effective microalgae cultivation system designs currently available. Aerial productivity was demonstrated as 92.1 kg year-1 m-2 compared to 4.2 kg year-1 m-2 for a comparable raceway. Protein composition was 54.1% and phycocyanin content was 78.27 mg g-1 of biomass. An economic appraisal gave capital cost as &#xA3;12,776.60 per m3 reactor and potential profits from pigment and protein production lead to a payback period of only 1.7 years. 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spelling 2026-04-09T15:03:27.8749807 v2 71537 2026-03-04 Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country e680067384fc331cd55536e3ad6f82ea Jose Gayo Pelaez Jose Gayo Pelaez true false 6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd 0000-0003-4116-723X Darren Oatley-Radcliffe Darren Oatley-Radcliffe true false 216d36449db09ed98c6971a2254a2457 0000-0002-1804-8083 Alla Silkina Alla Silkina true false 92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d Andrew Barron Andrew Barron true false 2026-03-04 The equipment required for large-scale production of quality microalgal biomass is costly to set-up. To address this challenge a novel low-cost internally illuminated reactor ‘the Cube’ has been developed, which is suitable for deployment in high latitude countries with low natural light conditions. This innovative concept combines the use of low-cost materials, LED lighting, effective temperature and pH control technology to produce high quality algal biomass from industrial CO2 effluent at low initial capital cost. This study evaluated the ability of the cube by growing Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina). The reactor achieved biomass concentrations of 1.37 g L-1 and 80.5 mg L-1 day-1 productivity in a 1 m3vol that occupies 1 m2, with consistent productivity spanning 78 days, surpassing some of the existing most cost-effective microalgae cultivation system designs currently available. Aerial productivity was demonstrated as 92.1 kg year-1 m-2 compared to 4.2 kg year-1 m-2 for a comparable raceway. Protein composition was 54.1% and phycocyanin content was 78.27 mg g-1 of biomass. An economic appraisal gave capital cost as £12,776.60 per m3 reactor and potential profits from pigment and protein production lead to a payback period of only 1.7 years. This novel reactor demonstrates sustainable profits from carbon capture and reuse. Journal Article Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy 13 Elsevier BV 2772-8013 Spirulina; Cyanobacteria; Microalgae; Circular economy; Sustainability; LED; Photobioreactor 31 3 2026 2026-03-31 10.1016/j.clcb.2026.100209 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Other This work was part funded by the Industrial Decarbonation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) and the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Innovation 2.0 grant – Project LightARC - algae remediation of CO2, CCUS 2201. 2026-04-09T15:03:27.8749807 2026-03-04T14:08:32.6865984 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering Jose Gayo Pelaez 1 Darren Oatley-Radcliffe 0000-0003-4116-723X 2 Alla Silkina 0000-0002-1804-8083 3 Andrew Barron 4 71537__36481__9c3b96eda06047f59e8cbe21dbd1794c.pdf 71537.VoR.pdf 2026-04-09T15:00:19.4970597 Output 7127575 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
spellingShingle Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
Jose Gayo Pelaez
Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
Alla Silkina
Andrew Barron
title_short Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
title_full Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
title_fullStr Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
title_full_unstemmed Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
title_sort Cost-effective and sustainable microalgae cultivation: A low-cost artificially integrated LED photobioreactor ensuring high-quality algal biomass production from industrial CO2 flue gas in a high latitude country
author_id_str_mv e680067384fc331cd55536e3ad6f82ea
6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd
216d36449db09ed98c6971a2254a2457
92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d
author_id_fullname_str_mv e680067384fc331cd55536e3ad6f82ea_***_Jose Gayo Pelaez
6dfb5ec2932455c778a5aa168c18cffd_***_Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
216d36449db09ed98c6971a2254a2457_***_Alla Silkina
92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d_***_Andrew Barron
author Jose Gayo Pelaez
Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
Alla Silkina
Andrew Barron
author2 Jose Gayo Pelaez
Darren Oatley-Radcliffe
Alla Silkina
Andrew Barron
format Journal article
container_title Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy
container_volume 13
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 2772-8013
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.clcb.2026.100209
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering
document_store_str 1
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description The equipment required for large-scale production of quality microalgal biomass is costly to set-up. To address this challenge a novel low-cost internally illuminated reactor ‘the Cube’ has been developed, which is suitable for deployment in high latitude countries with low natural light conditions. This innovative concept combines the use of low-cost materials, LED lighting, effective temperature and pH control technology to produce high quality algal biomass from industrial CO2 effluent at low initial capital cost. This study evaluated the ability of the cube by growing Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina). The reactor achieved biomass concentrations of 1.37 g L-1 and 80.5 mg L-1 day-1 productivity in a 1 m3vol that occupies 1 m2, with consistent productivity spanning 78 days, surpassing some of the existing most cost-effective microalgae cultivation system designs currently available. Aerial productivity was demonstrated as 92.1 kg year-1 m-2 compared to 4.2 kg year-1 m-2 for a comparable raceway. Protein composition was 54.1% and phycocyanin content was 78.27 mg g-1 of biomass. An economic appraisal gave capital cost as £12,776.60 per m3 reactor and potential profits from pigment and protein production lead to a payback period of only 1.7 years. This novel reactor demonstrates sustainable profits from carbon capture and reuse.
published_date 2026-03-31T05:51:48Z
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