Photosynthetic culture apparatus and group of photosynthesis culture apparatuses

• US 6,287,852 B1
• Filed: 06/17/1999
• Issued: 09/11/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Jiro Kondo, Kazutaka Miyatake, Nobuo Honami, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Yoshihisa Nakano
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakano, Yoshihisa, Tatsumi, Masahiko, Kanai, Kenji, Miyatake, Kazutaka, Honami, Nobuo, Kondo, Jiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Beisner, William H.
• Application Number:
  US09/331,331
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 435/292.1, 435/294.1, 435/257.1, 435/257.3, 47/1.4, 362/31
• US Class Current: 435/292.1
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 21/02 Photobioreactors culturing algae A01G33/00, A01H4/001, C12N1/12
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 31/02 located outside the reactor

Abstract

A photosynthetic culture system has a culture bath holding an fluid containing plant microorganisms, carbon dioxide supplying means for supplying carbon dioxide to the fluid in the culture bath, light-conducting plate in the form of a flat plate placed oppositely to a light-receiving culture surface existing on the side of said culture bath, and light-receiving panel mounted on the upper end surface of the light-conducting plate. Further said light-conducting plate has the function of turning incident light from said light-receiving panel by right angles to conduct the light uniformly to said light-receiving culture surface of said culture bath.

Claims

1. A photosynthetic culture system comprising:

a culture bath holding a fluid containing plant microorganisms, and having a light receiving culture surface,

a carbon dioxide supply for supplying carbon dioxide to the culture bath,

a flat plate conductor disposed oppositely to the light receiving culture surface,

a light receiver mounted above an edge of the flat plate conductor for conducting light to the flat plate conductor, and

the flat plate conductor having a diffused reflection layer for reflecting the light diffusely and bending the light at substantially right angles to conduct the light substantially uniformly to the light receiving culture surface.

2. The photosynthetic culture system of claim 1 wherein the flat plate conductor has opposing surfaces, and the diffused reflection layer is disposed on one of the opposing surfaces, and

another of the opposing surfaces has another diffused layer for diffusing the light.

3. The photosynthetic culture system of claim 1 wherein the diffused reflection layer includes small disks of translucent film, each disk having a predetermined diameter and a predetermined spacing from one another.

4. The photosynthetic culture system according to claim 1, wherein said light receiver has a light-converging portion and the area of the light entrance surface on top of the light-converging portion is larger than that of a bottom surface of the light-converging portion through which the light converges.

5. The photosynthetic culture system according to claim 1, wherein a side wall of said culture bath also serves as said flat plate conductor.

6. The photosynthetic culture system according to claim 1, wherein a top surface of said light receiver includes both top surfaces of said culture bath and said flat plate conductor and said light receiver is positioned on top of both said culture bath and said flat plate conductor.

7. The photosynthetic culture system according to claim 1, wherein a diffusing layer is provided on one surface of said flat plate conductor which is opposite to or in contact with said culture bath.

8. The photosynthetic culture system according to claim 7, wherein another diffused reflection layer is provided which reflects light diffusely on another surface of said flat plate conductor which is opposite to the one surface provided with said diffusing layer.

9. A collective photosynthetic culture system, wherein more than one photosynthetic culture system according to claim 1 are arranged so that the light-receiving culture surfaces of said culture baths will be in parallel to one another and the photosynthetic culture systems are connected to one another with a connecting pipe for supplying an fluid, a connecting pipe for transferring products, and a connecting pipe for supplying carbon dioxide.

10. The collective photosynthetic culture system according to claim 9, wherein more than one light receiver is carried by said photosynthetic culture system and said light receivers are integrally manufactured.

11. The collective photosynthetic culture system according to claim 10, wherein the light entrance surface of said integrally manufactured light receivers is flat.

12. The collective photosynthetic culture system according to claim 10, wherein said integrally manufactured light receivers has a thin protective film formed on a light entrance surface.

13. The collective photosynthetic culture system according to claim 9, wherein said flat plate conductor has a diffusing layer provided on both opposing surfaces of said flat plate conductor.

14. The collective photosynthetic culture system according to claim 9, wherein said flat plate conductor includes two side walls, which are opposite to each other, of said culture bath.

15. A collective photosynthetic culture system comprising:

a plurality of culture baths, each holding a fluid containing plant microorganisms, and each having a light receiving culture surface arranged parallel to one another,

a plurality of flat plate conductors, each disposed oppositely to a respective light receiving culture surface,

a plurality of light receivers formed integrally and mounted above the plurality of flat plate conductors,

said plurality of light receivers having an integral flat top surface for receiving light, and an integral bottom surface configured as a plurality of convex surfaces for emitting the light, and

each of the plurality of flat plate conductors receiving the light from a respective one of the convex surfaces and bending the light at substantially right angles to conduct the light substantially uniformly to a respective light receiving culture surface.

16. The culture system of claim 15 including a space formed between the integrally formed bottom surface and the flat plate conductors.

17. The culture system of claim 15 including the culture baths connected to one another by a pipe for supplying fluid and another pipe for supplying carbon dioxide.

18. A collective photosynthetic culture system comprising:

a plurality of culture baths, each holding a fluid containing plant microorganisms, and each having a light receiving culture surface arranged parallel to one another,

a plurality of flat plate conductors, each sandwiched between light receiving culture surfaces of adjacent culture baths,

a plurality of light receivers formed integrally and mounted above the plurality of flat plate conductors,

each of the plurality of flat plate conductors receiving the light from a respective one of the plurality of light receivers and bending the light at substantially right angles to conduct the light to oppositely disposed light receiving culture surfaces, and

each of the plurality of flat plate conductors having opposing surfaces, each opposing surface including a diffusing layer for substantially uniformly conducting the light to an opposing light receiving culture surface.

19. The culture system of claim 18 wherein the plurality of light receivers have an integral top surface configured as a plurality of convex surfaces for receiving light, and an integral bottom flat surface for emitting the light, and

each of the plurality of flat plate conductors receiving the light from a respective one of the convex surfaces.