Analysis of the biomass quality and photosynthetic efficiency of a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium grown outdoors with two agitation systems

The efficiency of two different agitation systems (airlift and paddlewheel) in the biomass photoproduction of a nitrogen-fixing filamentous blue-green alga was evaluated outdoors, and the elemental and molecular composition of the cells grown with each system was analyzed. With the paddlewheel system, the productivity values achieved were over 30% higher than with the airlift system, both in summer and winter. In this last season, a conversion efficiency of total solar energy into stored biomass energy of 3.3% was estimated for the paddlewheel system. Moreover, the algal cells grown with this system exhibited a higher net protein (58.9% of dry weight) and nitrogen (11.3%) content than those grown with the airlift device, with an estimated nitrogen fixation rate of more than 2 g N m(-2) day(-1). These advantages of the paddlewheel system make this procedure more appropriate for the large-scale photoproduction of nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae outdoors.