Abstract

The building envelope has a great impact on the thermal/visual comfort of occupants and the building energy demand. Accordingly, facade-integrated microalgae photobioreactors have been recently explored as an innovative green technology for sustainable buildings. However, critical knowledge gaps remain, especially concerning the performance of this system. The study presents a review on the main issues related to the performance of this technology for facade application, tackls the lack of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the available literature considering various performances of microalgae photobioreactor facades (PBRF) and various possible technical considerations, to identify and discuss its challenges and benefits. According to the findings, the considerable benefits of PBRFs are confirmed. Finally, the research gaps and bottlenecks for further application are presented. Some key research gaps include high expenses of construction/maintenance, limited research on visual, energy, thermal, and daylight performances of PBRFs, structural consideration, interaction with users, and lack of regulations.