A review on photobioreactor design and modelling for microalgae production

A microorganism culture process is a complex system in which physical operating parameters and biological responses strongly interact. Mathematical formulation and modelling of the different phenomena involved in the process enable a better understanding of the behaviour of the process, and therefore enable the process parameters to be defined accordingly. The contribution of a model, even a simple one, is highly beneficial to the understanding of the process. The definition of a model for the particular case of photobioreactors is not easy, however, and requires the integration of multiple and often complex knowledge. This article reports a review on the biological aspects of the photosynthetic microorganisms culture necessary to model kinetic growths, the designs of photobioreactor used for deep analysis of the physiologic aspects of the microalgae culture and for the industrial culture. The different approaches to model the kinetic growth are described together with the modelling of the radiative field and its coupling to a simple biological model in order to illustrate the particular influence of the light factor, which is the main specific feature of photobioreactors.