A dynamic model for temperature prediction in a façade-integrated photobioreactor

Expanding mechanistic models to represent purple phototrophic bacteria enriched cultures growing outdoors

“…Models developed during years of microalgae research could be translated to suit PPB reactors (Acién Fernández et al, 1997;Béchet et al, 2013). Other modelling approaches previously applied for microalgae and not evaluated here, such as computational fluid dynamics (Ranganathan et al, 2022) or heat transfer modelling (Todisco et al, 2022) could also be adapted for PPB reactors, aiding in reactor design and process optimization.…”

“…As they represent a convenient compromise between prediction capabilities and simplicity, biochemical mechanistic models are the most commonly applied models (Darvehei et al, 2018;Shoener et al, 2019). Nevertheless, dedicated models have also been developed to consider other relevant factors, such as fluid heterogeneity in PBRs (e.g., via computational fluid dynamics (Ranganathan et al, 2022)), outdoors solar irradiance and light distribution throughout the culture (Acién Fernández et al, 1997;Béchet et al, 2013), or temperature prediction in the reactors (e.g., heat transfer modelling (Todisco et al, 2022)). Although none of these approaches has been applied for PPB systems, this technology could clearly benefit from them.…”