Sustainable smart photobioreactor for continuous cultivation of microalgae embedded with Internet of Things

Pei En Tham; Yan Jer Ng; Navintran Vadivelu; Hooi Ren Lim; Kuan Shiong Khoo; Kit Wayne Chew; Pau Loke Show

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126558

Sustainable smart photobioreactor for continuous cultivation of microalgae embedded with Internet of Things

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Feb:346:126558. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126558. Epub 2021 Dec 11.

Authors

Pei En Tham¹, Yan Jer Ng¹, Navintran Vadivelu¹, Hooi Ren Lim¹, Kuan Shiong Khoo², Kit Wayne Chew³, Pau Loke Show⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, No. 1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia.
³ School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Sepang 43900, Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia. Electronic address: PauLoke.Show@nottingham.edu.my.

PMID: 34906702
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126558

Abstract

This research work aims to fabricate an optimized up-scaled photobioreactor and extraction tank which incorporates the Internet of Things (IoT) for remote monitoring of selected parameters without being present in the lab as the industry is gradually moving towards the direction of remote operation. Several design factors were considered where modelling using ANSYS was carried out before the finalised design is drawn using AutoCAD. To monitor critical parameters that include liquid level, temperature, and pH condition during the operation of the tanks, water-proof sensors are implemented with the aid of Arduino NodeMCU board and the sensors are linked with Blynk, a smartphone application that allows remote monitoring via Wi-Fi connection. The sensors' results obtained using the Blynk application show high accuracy as compared with manual data except for photobioreactor liquid level. This shows that IoT and remote monitoring can be integrated successfully.

Keywords: Blynk; Internet of Things; Photobioreactor; Remote monitoring; Sensors.

MeSH terms

Internet
Internet of Things*
Microalgae*
Photobioreactors