Volume 42, Issue 8 pp. 1663-1669
Research Article

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

Vincent Gernigon

Vincent Gernigon

University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, LISBP, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

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Mohammed A. Chekroun

Mohammed A. Chekroun

University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, LISBP, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

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Arnaud Cockx

Arnaud Cockx

University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, LISBP, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

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Pascal Guiraud

Pascal Guiraud

University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, LISBP, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

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Jérôme Morchain

Corresponding Author

Jérôme Morchain

University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, LISBP, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

Correspondence: Jérôme Morchain ([email protected]), LISBP, University of Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France.Search for more papers by this author
First published: 25 April 2019
Citations: 11

Abstract

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.

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