Innovative design for a portable hybrid system of hydroponic and microalgae to produce food and biofuels

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates an innovative hybrid system that combines hydroponics and microalgae in a compact portable shipping container. This container is divided into two parts; one contains the microalgae system and the other contains the hydroponic system. This combined system works by dividing the 24 hours into 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark for each part. Both parts are connected using light-impermeable pipes that pass carbon dioxide from the dark side to the lit side and oxygen from the lit side to the dark side. In this paper, the authors developed a validated mathematical model for hydroponic and microalgae to evaluate the system’s performance. Results found by the model show the optimum parameters for the split photobioreactor and hydroponic system. The first investigated parameter is the sparger diameter for split the photobioreactor and the second is the number of plants that give the better and optimum result. The optimum modelling design for the combined hydroponic and microalgae system was using 100 plants for lettuce and three photobioreactors with a 0.009-m diameter for sparger to a photobioreactor system with an area of 15.6 m2.