Authors:
Christopher McHardy
1
;
Giovanni Luzi
2
;
Jose Rodriguez Agudo
2
;
Antonio Delgado
3
and
Cornelia Rauh
4
Affiliations:
1
Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
;
2
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Korea, Democratic People's Republic
;
3
University Erlangen-Nuremberg and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
;
4
Technische Universität Berlin and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Keyword(s):
Photobioreactor, Microalgae, Light-Matter Interaction, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Radiation Transport, Lattice Boltzmann, Hybrid Method.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Organic and Bio-Photonics
;
Photonics
;
Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology
Abstract:
Cultivation of phototrophic microorganisms occurs often in closed photobioreactors (PBR). Thereby, the
distribution of light inside PBR is a key factor for phototrophic growth and reactor productivity. To predict
local light intensities, it is often assumed that the absorption rate is constant in space, and scattering by
microorganisms is negligible. The present contribution aims to present a hybrid model to simulate fluid flow
characteristics and its impact on light fields in a bubble column PBR. First, numerical simulations of bubble
column flow have been performed. Afterwards, the computed local air volume fractions have been used to
obtain local radiation characteristics of the gassed suspension, and polychromatic light fields were
computed and compared to the optically homogeneous case.