Five early-career researchers from across the SUN-PERFORM consortium converged at Wageningen Campus this July for an intensive week of learning how to design and operate photobioreactors—the specialized systems needed to cultivate microalgae at commercial scales.
The course, “Microalgae Process Design: from Cells to Photobioreactors,” ran from July 4-11 and was co-organized by SUN-PERFORM project coordinator Sarah D’Adamo from Wageningen University & Research. Researchers from five partner institutions participated: Áureo Cutillas Farray and Igor Vunderink (Wageningen University & Research), Jasmin Fisher Balil (University of Amsterdam), Jacob Kneip (Bielefeld University), and Oussama Aboulkassim (University Ibn Zohr).
Through lectures, hands-on experiments, and work with the pilot-scale AlgaePARC facility, participants gained practical skills in cultivating microalgae under fully controlled conditions. They learned to quantify light-limited growth—understanding how algae respond when light availability constrains productivity—and to design mass and energy balances for scaling up production systems.
These skills will be important to SUN-PERFORM’s mission of making solar fuels more affordable. The project enhances microalgae using two key strategies: advanced nanocrystals that help algae capture more useful light, and genetic engineering that overcomes natural limits in fuel production. Scaling these innovations from laboratory flasks to industrial photobioreactors requires exactly the kind of expertise the team gained in Wageningen.
By learning together across institutional boundaries, the SUN-PERFORM team is building the shared technical foundation needed to make solar fuels more sustainable and affordable.