Solar bioreactors used for the industrial production of microalgae.

Microalgae are excellent sources of biomass containing several important compounds for human and animal nutrition-proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, pigments and antioxidants as well as bioactive secondary metabolites. In addition, they have a great biotechnological potential for nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals as well as for CO sequestration, wastewater treatment, and potentially also biofuel and biopolymer production. In this review, the industrial production of the most frequently used microalgae genera-Arthrospira, Chlorella, Dunaliella, Haematococcus, Nannochloropsis, Phaeodactylum, Porphyridium and several other species is discussed as concerns the applicability of the most widely used large-scale systems, solar bioreactors (SBRs)-open ponds, raceways, cascades, sleeves, columns, flat panels, tubular systems and others.

Development of thin-layer cascades for microalgae cultivation: milestones (review).

In this work, the key moments of the development of the so-called thin-layer cascades (TLC) for microalgae production are described. Development started at the end of the 1950s when the first generation of TLCs was set-up in former Czechoslovakia. Since, similar units for microalgae culturing, which are relatively simple, low-cost and highly productive, have been installed in a number of other countries worldwide.