[Oxygen evolution characteristics of Spirulina platensis under various light conditions]

The knowledge of oxygen evolution characteristics, which is a symbol of photosynthetic activity, under various light conditions is important for photobioreactor design and operation. In this study, we constructed a device to investigate oxygen evolution characteristics of Spirulina platensis under two different light regimes: 1) continuous illumination of various light intensities (14-6 500 micromol/(m2 x s)); 2) medium frequency L/D cycles of four different light intensities (69, 505, 1 330, 4 265 micromol/(m2s)). Light limited region, intermediate region, light saturated region and light inhibited region of light intensity were recognized according to their relationship with oxygen evolution rate (OER) under continuous illumination. Investigation of S. platensis under L/D cycles showed whether photosynthetic efficiency could be increased with increasing L/D frequency largely depended on the light intensity applied. The higher the light intensity, the larger the photosynthetic enhancement could be expected with the increase of L/D frequency. The largest light integration effect was found under L/D cycles of high light intensity (4 265 micromol/(m2 x s)) and medium light fraction (k = 0.6), while light integration effect was totally absent under low light fractions (k < 0.2). We also discussed their implications to the practical aspects of microalgae cultivation.