A method for producing microorganisms in a photobioreactor, the method comprising:
- providing a closed reactor formed with a plurality of upwardly open reactor vessels which are closed by a one-piece or multi-piece top wall and in which a nutrient medium is to be accommodated;
- wherein at least some of the reactor vessels are formed as individual vessels which, in cross section, have a U-shape with a front wall extending in a vertical axis direction, a back wall spaced apart therefrom in a longitudinal direction and likewise extending in the vertical axis direction, and a bottom wall connecting the front and back walls to one another;
- wherein the reactor vessels of the photobioreactor that are designed as individual vessels are arranged one after another in the longitudinal direction in such a way that a front reactor vessel, as seen in the longitudinal direction, having an at least regionally translucent back wall is adjacent an at least regionally translucent front wall of a rear reactor vessel, as seen in the longitudinal direction, with formation of gap, wherein free end regions of the front and back walls adjacent to one another with formation of the gap have a common flow-over wall region which closes the gap from above and which has at least one vessel flow-over opening between the adjacent reactor vessels;
- wherein the flow-over wall region extends up to and adjoins the top wall in a gas-tight and liquid-tight manner and/or is connected thereto;
- accommodating at least one lighting element in the gap between mutually adjacent reactor vessels, and radiating light through the respectively assigned, at least regionally translucent front wall and/or back wall into one of the two adjacent reactor vessels or into the two adjacent reactor vessels;
- wherein each of the reactor vessels of the photobioreactor that are designed as individual vessels contain a partition wall which proceeds from the bottom wall, extends upward in the vertical axis direction to the top wall to adjoin the top wall in a gas-tight and liquid-tight manner, wherein the partition wall divides the reactor vessel into a front reactor chamber and a rear reactor chamber along the longitudinal direction;
- and
- providing in the partition wall, in a near-bottom-wall region of the partition wall that is adjacent and/or connected to the bottom wall, at least one partition-wall flow-through opening between the front reactor chamber and the rear reactor chamber, and enabling a nutrient medium accommodated in the front reactor chamber of a front reactor vessel to flow through the at least one partition-wall flow-through opening into the rear reactor chamber of the front reactor vessel and to further flow through the at least one vessel flow-over opening from the rear reactor chamber of the front reactor vessel into a front reactor chamber of a rear reactor vessel.