Premium
How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors
Author(s) -
Gernigon Vincent,
Chekroun Mohammed A.,
Cockx Arnaud,
Guiraud Pascal,
Morchain Jérôme
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201900102
Subject(s) - photobioreactor , mixing (physics) , irradiance , growth rate , constant (computer programming) , environmental science , algae , light intensity , bloom , mechanics , biological system , physics , mathematics , ecology , optics , computer science , biology , biomass (ecology) , geometry , quantum mechanics , programming language
The microalgae growth rate in photobioreactors responds with inertia to light stimuli. Here, light variations experienced by the algae are accessed through a coupling of an irradiance field calculation and a Lagrangian particle tracking. The response of algae to fluctuating light is then described by a relaxation model involving a single time constant, the value of which is identified from published data. The overall growth rate is calculated as the sum of individual growth rates of all particles. Instantaneous adaptation and full integration asymptotic behaviors are recovered whilst a finite time constant reveals that the overall growth rate is dependent both on mixing and light distribution. This methodology thus quantitatively relates the design parameters to the photobioreactor performance.