ABSTRACT
Raceway reactors are one of the most suitable technologies for producing microalgae but there are still certain drawbacks that need to be resolved in order to make them competitive for low value microalgae applications. Some of these issues are biological, such as the high risk of culture contamination—they are most suitable for producing extremophile microorganisms (principally Dunaliella and Spirulina). Other issues are related to engineering; for example, inadequate fluid-dynamic and mass transfer capacity that reduces the performance of these microalgae production systems. Consequently, conventional raceway reactor design is unable to maximize biomass production capacity, and therefore new more efficient designs are required. Moreover, once the optimal reactor is designed and built, it must be operated under optimal conditions. For this to happen, the implementation of advanced control strategies is essential. This chapter aims to summarize the relevance of the main engineering factors determining raceway reactor performance in microalgae production and how their optimization, including the control strategies, allows us to improve productivity in these systems.
