Photobioreactor Modeling and Radiative Transfer Analysis for Engineering Purposes
Résumé
The present chapter introduces the theoretical framework for constructing predictive knowledge-models leading to the calculation of the volumetric rate of biomass production, the surface rate of biomass production and the thermodynamic efficiency of photobioreactors. Here, the main assumption is that photosynthesis reaction is limited by radiative transfer only. First, the predictive determination of the scattering and absorption properties of photosynthetic microorganisms of various types is addressed. Then, these radiative properties are used to calculate the radiation field within the reaction volume by solving the radiative transfer equation. Both the development of approximate solutions appropriated with typical photobioreactor configurations (intermediate scattering optical-thickness) and the rigorous solution of the radiative transfer equation by the Monte Carlo method are addressed, including the treatment of complex geometric structures. Finally, the thermokinetic coupling between the radiation field, the photosynthesis reaction rates and thermodynamic efficiency are investigated. For the special case of the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis, a complete stoichiometric, kinetic and thermodynamic model is constructed using the linear thermody-namics of irreversible processes to analyze the primary events of photosynthesis (Z-scheme). Comparison between the theoretical calculations presented in this chapter and experimental results confirms the ability of the proposed predictive approach, after parameters reification, to quantify performances of many kinds of photobioreactors (geometry, size) functioning under different operating conditions. An extension of the proposed coupling approach for the more complicated case of eukaryotic (microalgae) microorganisms is then proposed as further perspective of this work.
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