Yes there is an example with a red macroalga from corallina familly Jania rubens cultivated in 500L photobioreactors by Codif International in Britany, France. You can see some information in our web site and in this paper: http://www.codif-recherche-et-nature.com/userfiles/PUBLICATIONS/personalcareseptembre2010030.pdf

You might find some information here: http://www.enalgae.eu/macroalgae-pilot-facilities.htm

http://www.enalgae.eu/macroalgae-pilot-facilities.htm

Yes, my laboratory and that of Gregory Rorrer have used photobioreactors to grow cultures of macroalgae in order to test their capability to take up and concentrate dangerous pollutants like TNT and PCBs. Check out the recent study by Cheney et al  2014 (Marine Pollution Bulletin 88: 207-214) and references therein for examples. Previously, we had also used photobioreactors to determine the best culture conditions to grow a red seaweed for the production of potentially valuable halogenated monoterpenes (Maliakal et al 2001, J. Phycology 37: 1010-1019). I personally think these are two of the best uses of macroalgal photobioreactors.

Thanks to all of you for responding to my query. However, what persuaded me to write this is how economical they are in case of macro algal culture? Are photobioreactors used in industrial scale (for macroalgae) any where?  

As said by Pierre-Yves, Jania rubens is produced as free microplantlets by CODIF international in photobioreactors under controlled conditions with a technology developped during the PhD work of Eric Gasparotto. This seaweed is used in cosmetic formulation . 

In Britany, more recently the company SEPPIC (L'Air Liquide Group) has also started production of in vitro macroalgal cell culture according a process named Celebrity http://www.seppic.com/file/galleryelement/pj/b5/c8/a4/47/2015-03-04_seppic_press-release celebrity_8356570371709306428.pdf;j sessionid=PemgBBBRWs737tWrSdvXkg__

with also some extracts for cosmetic applications.

Now it seems that economic viability of seaweed (cells or microplantlets) production in closed photobioreactors  is reached only for some specific applications corresponding to niche markets,  

However you could also condider the production of seaweed in open photobioreactors (low cost PBRs), generally raceways configurations. Some small companies are already producing some seaweed biomass, such as Innov'alg (France) http://www.netalgae.eu/fr/membership-details.php?ID=63 for producing Chondrus and Enteromorpha, for cosmetic and nutraceutical applications.

Best regards 

Thanks Dominique for useful links and would love to know more about open photobioreactors (low cost PBRs) from other researchers.