Comprehensive computational model for coupled fluid flow, mass transfer and light supply in tubular photobioreactors equipped with glass sponges

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive computational model for tubular photobioreactors that integrates hydrodynamics, light distribution, and biomass growth to improve design and optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled mesoscopic simulation model combining fluid flow, light transfer, and biomass kinetics for tubular PBRs with sponge structures.

Findings

Model accurately predicts local light intensities and flow characteristics.

Simulation helps optimize reactor design for better biomass productivity.

Coupled model captures complex interactions in photobioreactors.

Abstract

The design and optimization of photobioreactors (PBR) can benefit from the development of robust and yet quantitatively accurate computational models, that incorporate the complex interplay of fundamental phenomena. At a minimum, the simulation model requires at least three submodels for hydrodynamic, light supply and biomass kinetics as pointed out by various review articles on computational fluid flow models for PBR design. By modeling the hydrodynamics, the light-dark-cycles can be detected and the mixing characteristic of the flow besides its mass transport is analyzed. The radiative transport model is deployed to predict the local light intensities according to wavelength of the light and scattering characteristic of the culture. The third submodel implements the biomass growth kinetic, by coupling the local light intensities to hydrodynamic information of CO2 concentration, to predict the algal growth. The developed mesoscopic simulation model is applied to a tubular PBR with transparent walls and internal sponge structure. The complex hydrodynamics and the homogeneous illumination in such reactors is very promising for CFD based optimization.