Calibration of a Bio-Kinetic Model to Simulate Microalgae Growth

A. Solimeno[1], J. Garcia[2]
[1]Department of Hydraulic, Maritime and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
[2]Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Published in 2014

The aim of present work is to present and calibrate a new mechanistic model that includes physical and biokinetic processes to reproduce the algae growth in photobioreactor or ponds during long-term scenarios. A COMSOL Multiphysics® model is used to implement the microalgae processes mainly based on River Water Quality Model 1 (RWQM1) (Reichert et al., 2011). The main innovation of the model is that it takes into account dissolved carbon as a limiting factor for the growth of microalgae. Furthermore the model considers the growth of microalgae as a function of light intensity and temperature, and as well other nutrients such as nitrogen. Results indicate that the model was able to accurately reproduce the microalgae growth in the experiment.