Developing a Wind-Resistant Column Photobioreactor to Tolerate 40 m/s Typhoon for Outdoor Microalgae with Carbon Fixation

In order to eliminate sunlight in glasshouses and reduce construction costs for commercialization of microalgae culture with CO2 fixation, a wind-resistant column photobioreactor was developed using computational fluid dynamics to tolerate 40 m/s typhoons for outdoor microalgae growth. As the height decreased and the thickness increased, the deformation and stress of the reactor decreased under wind pressure. As the center distance of the pipe row increased, the deformation and stress decreased, while the space utilization also decreased. Moreover, with the increase in the longitudinal distance of the double pipe rows (DPR), the wind flow disturbance decreased. However, the effect of the lateral distance change was less. The optimized structure of DPR with a single pipe height of 3.9 m, and a thickness of 3 mm gave a deformation of 3.18 cm and Von-Mises stress of 7.27 MPa. The consumption of materials for ring fixation with safe support spacing of one and two pipes decreased by 49 and 71%, respectively, compared to that of bottom fixation..