Modeling of photobioreactors: Application to bubble column simulation

Microalgae growth modeling and control for a vertical flat panel photobioreactor

“…While this is encouraging, there have been numerous problems with scaling up to a large production scale [3]. The primary challenge has been to design a PBR that is able to utilize intense light and maintain appropriate gas concentrations at a commercial scale (c.f., [1], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9].…”

“…The trade-offs are finding reactors that utilize high light intensities well, can remove produced dissolved oxygen well, and scale well. A variety of linear and nonlinear models have been developed to address this for tubular reactors (c.f., [4], [5], [6], [7], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]). However, there has been significantly less publications on flat panel reactors, which is the style of reactor addressed in this paper.…”

The technology of microalgal culturing

“…Growth of microalgal cultures in fluctuating light environments has been modelled by Merchuk and Wu (2003) and Wu and Merchuk (2004), who segregated photobioreactors into compartments of different light intensities, and structured the photosystems in the cells as open, closed (while processing an already absorbed photon), or inhibited (due to absorption of multiple photons by each antenna). Transfer of cells between the different reactor compartments and changes in status of the photosystems were described by kinetic rate constants.…”

Biosystems for Air Protection

“…However, such type of photobioreactors have limitations that could restrict their widespread application, such as: photoinhibition in outdoors cultures, because of immobilized microalgae are constantly exposed to a high photon flux density and there is a risk of clogging due to biomass overgrowth. Merchuk & Wu (2003) reviewed the mathematical model of the process of photosynthetic growth that integrates algal growth kinetics and fluid dynamics of the bubble column photobioreactor. Simulations carried out with the model allowed, by extrapolation, qualitative prediction of the expected behaviour of photobioreactors, such as: optimal column diameter, as a function of illuminance and gas superficial velocity in the bubble column.…”