Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Departamento de Informática, Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain.
Biotechnol Bioeng. 2021 Mar;118(3):1186-1198. doi: 10.1002/bit.27642. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
Temperature and irradiance are the two most relevant factors determining the performance of microalgae cultures in open raceway reactors. Moreover, inadequate temperature strongly reduces the biomass productivity in these systems even if enough sunlight is available. Controlling the temperature in large open raceway reactors is considered unaffordable because of the large amount of energy required. This study presents an indirect method for temperature regulation in microalgae raceway reactors by optimizing the culture depth. First, the effect of the culture depth on the raceway temperature is analyzed for different seasons of the year. Afterward, a simulation study is presented where the proposed control approach is compared to the normal operation mode with constant volume in the reactor. This study is also extended to industrial scale. Relevant improvements on the temperature factor and biomass production are presented. The developed knowledge allows the improvement of the performance in open raceway reactors up to 12% without involving additional energy and costs, being a suitable solution for large industrial reactors that until now have no options for controlling the temperature.
温度和辐照度是决定开放式跑道式反应器中微藻培养性能的两个最重要因素。此外，即使有足够的阳光，温度不足也会强烈降低这些系统中的生物量生产率。由于需要大量的能量，因此控制大型开放式跑道式反应器的温度被认为是不可行的。本研究提出了一种通过优化培养深度来调节微藻跑道式反应器温度的间接方法。首先，分析了不同季节培养深度对跑道温度的影响。之后，提出了一种模拟研究，将所提出的控制方法与反应器中体积恒定的常规运行模式进行了比较。本研究还扩展到了工业规模。提出了对温度因子和生物量生产的相关改进。所开发的知识允许在不涉及额外能源和成本的情况下，将开放式跑道式反应器的性能提高 12%，这是一种适用于大型工业反应器的解决方案，因为到目前为止，这些反应器还没有控制温度的选择。
