Q&A: How does pH control work?

Have you ever wondered how pH works in our photobioreactors? Learn how Industrial Plankton’s photobioreactors (PBRs) maintain precise pH levels for optimal algae growth. Discover the importance of pH control and our automated CO2 injection system for ensuring a stable culture.

All Industrial Plankton Photobioreactors are installed with a pH probe to measure the pH in real time inside the algae culture. As is commonly known, when algae grow, they consume carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the water. To buffer this process, maintain a stable pH, and feed carbon to the culture, we add CO2 automatically through our air filters.

The CO2 is sterilized on the way into the culture through the filters, ensuring it’s not a source of contamination. This also maintains a perfect pH. For example, if you want a pH of 8.2 in your culture (maybe, in this case, you are growing a diatom), you can maintain exactly that pH. The Industrial Plantkon bioreactor pH will not have unpredictable swings with this constant monitoring and automation. If you don’t have control over the pH, that is a cause for a culture crash. That is why having a pH control allows us to have a more stable management of the culture, giving us a more reliable product.