What this work is about, in plain words
A description of a simple laboratory installation for growing marine microalgae. The authors' main point: for results from different laboratories to be comparable, light must be measured taking the shape of the cultivator into account.
In laboratories, algae are often grown in ordinary chemical glassware. Light is measured without taking into account the shape of the illuminated surface, and the amount of air for mixing is given approximately. This makes the results of different experiments hard to compare, and transferring laboratory data to production is complicated by the "scale-up effect". The authors proposed an installation for intensive cultivation of marine microalgae that is simple to build and maintain.
The article describes the design of the laboratory cultivator and explains how to measure light characteristics correctly, taking its geometry into account.
The authors show that light affects almost all growth processes of microalgae, so its measurement deserves special attention. Cultivators of simple shape are the most convenient for calculations: rectangular ones lit on any face, or vertical cylinders lit from above or below.
The work is useful for those who run experiments with microalgae and want comparable results.
Limitations. This is a description of a 2005 laboratory installation without comparative tests. Information is limited to what is published in the article and does not describe Laboratory 17 installations.