DeCaluwe, Steven C.Karns, Devin Andrew Justin2025-01-232025-01-232024T 9775https://hdl.handle.net/11124/179251Includes bibliographical references.2024 Spring.This thesis presents the development of a series of progressively sophisticated novel photobioreactors for cultivating photosynthetic microorganisms in outdoor-simulating environments. The reactors have been created with the needs of the organisms as well as the lab and scientists in mind for characterizing high productivity candidate strains for outdoor farming of valuable resources. They control four major components (or selections thereof) of managing photosynthetic growth: illumination, temperature control, gas administration, and liquids handling. Light drives the photosynthetic apparatus, temperature dictates the rates of many physiochemical processes, the dissolved gas environment determines concentration gradients the cells must work with or against for electron fixation, and the liquid environment impacts salinity, nutrient availability, and homogeneity. In outdoor situations, these conditions can swing diurnally, with weather, and at different locations of the pond, resulting in unexpected behaviors compared to traditional flask-grown cultures. It is a costly and time-constrained endeavor to test strains outdoors, so to enable more rapid experimentation indoors, these reactors were developed. They are capable of simulating diurnal outdoor light intensities and temperature swings, controlling pH, and performing liquid additions and subtractions like what would be seen in operation at an outdoor facility. This enables characterization of outdoor candidate strains indoors during off-seasons and alleviates much of the manual labor associated with caring for each individual culture.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright of the original work is retained by the author.algaebioreactorphotosynthesisText2025-01-10