Chlorella sp Microalgae Suspensions—Rheological Behaviour Analyzes at Different Culture Times

Taking into account the growing interest in microalgae to be used as raw material for biodiesel production, this research is aimed at analyzing the rheological behaviour of microalgae suspensions (Chlorella sp) at different culture times under eight different conditions (temperature, salinity and CO2, NO3 and PO4 levels) in order to estimate the energy demands of each step, with the purpose of optimizing a continuous feed tubular bioreactor construction. For each condition, it was calculated the biomass and oil yields, so as to correlate these results with rheological parameters. The suspension results indicated that the microalgae Chlorella sp is a non-Newtonian material with dilatant characteristics; the processing time hardly exerted an influence on the rheograms of the suspension of the microalgae Chlorella sp, except for the simultaneous conditions of low salinity and low CO2 content; NO3 and PO4 contents and the amount of supplements influenced the rheological parameters of the suspension of the microalgae Chlorella sp, when in low concentration of CO2 and low salinity levels.