Computational fluid dynamics simulation of mixing characteristics and light regime in tubular photobioreactors with novel static mixers
Abstract
Abstract BACKGROUND Tubular photobioreactors are considered to be important and potential photobioreactors due to their higher photosynthetic efficiency and biomass productivity. In this work the performance of a new tubular photobioreactor with novel static mixers on mixing characteristics and light regime was studied through computational fluid dynamics. RESULTS The effects of cross‐angle of two blades, horizontal spacing, open porosity and hole radius of the novel static mixers on mixing characteristics were investigated to obtain appropriate configurations. Compared with the tubular photobioreactor without static mixers, the tubular photobioreactor with novel static mixers was proved to have strong fluid mixing and significant swirling flow. Average velocity magnitude along the light direction increased by nearly 1000 times and turbulent kinetic energy increased by 1.3 times after adding novel static mixers into the tubular photobioreactor. Additionally, with novel static mixers most cells were promoted to circulate between the light zone and the dark zone. The light/dark cycle frequency was also improved and increased by 85.21% and 95.77% at fluid inlet velocity of 0.3 and 0.4 m s−1, respectively. CONCLUSION The simulation results showed the novel static mixers could effectively enhance mixing degree of fluid and increase the light/dark cycle frequency of microalgal cells in tubular photobioreactors. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry
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One can mainly distinguish between two approaches for light transfer modeling: one-dimensional model equations and the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE).
“One can mainly distinguish between two approaches: firstly, one-dimensional model equations which enable quick and simple estimates of the light intensity with respect to the distance from the light source [23,24,31,36,39,41,43,125] and secondly, the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) [18,26-28,34], whose solution requires the application of numerical methods.”
From Modeling and Simulation of Photobioreactors with Computational Fluid Dynamics—A Comprehensive Review (2022) · cites this paper as [36]
Microalgae cells are mostly modeled as discrete objects in photobioreactor CFD models.
“In contrast, microalgae cells are mostly modeled as discrete objects [23,24,26-29,31,34,36-38,136].”
From Modeling and Simulation of Photobioreactors with Computational Fluid Dynamics—A Comprehensive Review (2022) · cites this paper as [36]
As recent developments in photobioreactor technology include complex geometries with static mixers or internal light sources, employing the full RTE for light transfer calculations becomes increasingly important.
“As recent developments in photobioreactor technology include complex geometries with static mixers [24,36] or internal light sources [21,214], employing the full RTE for light transfer calculations becomes increasingly important.”
From Modeling and Simulation of Photobioreactors with Computational Fluid Dynamics—A Comprehensive Review (2022) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Cheng, W., Huang, J., & Chen, J.
- Affiliations
- East China University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Jianpei
- Venue
- Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-10-27
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 327-335
- ISSN
- 0142-0356 (ISSN-L)
- 0268-2575
- 1097-4660
- OpenAlex
- W2111763549
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Basic Research Program China (2011CB200903)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Fluid Dynamics and Mixing
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
- Keywords
- tubular photobioreactor, static mixer, mixing properties, light regime, light-dark cycle, swirling flow, microalgae cultivation, turbulent kinetic energy, effective porosity
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