Advanced integration of fluid dynamics and photosynthetic reaction kinetics for microalgae culture systems
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Photosynthetic microalgae have been in the spotlight of biotechnological production (biofuels, lipids, etc), however, current barriers in mass cultivation of microalgae are limiting its successful industrialization. Therefore, a mathematical model integrating both the biological and hydrodynamical parts of the cultivation process may improve our understanding of relevant phenomena, leading to further optimization of the microalgae cultivation. RESULTS: We introduce a unified multidisciplinary simulation tool for microalgae culture systems, particularly the photobioreactors. Our approach describes changes of cell growth determined by dynamics of heterogeneous environmental conditions such as irradiation and mixing of the culture. Presented framework consists of (i) a simplified model of microalgae growth in a culture system (the advection-diffusion-reaction system within a phenomenological model of photosynthesis and photoinhibition), (ii) the fluid dynamics (Navier-Stokes equations), and (iii) the irradiance field description (Beer-Lambert law). To validate the method, a simple case study leading to hydrodynamically induced fluctuating light conditions was chosen. The integration of computational fluid dynamics (ANSYS Fluent) revealed the inner property of the system, the flashing light enhancement phenomenon, known from experiments. CONCLUSION: Our physically accurate model of microalgae culture naturally exhibits features of real system, can be applied to any geometry of microalgae mass cultivation and thus is suitable for biotechnological applications.
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Modeling the relationships among fluid dynamics, light distribution, and growth kinetics in photobioreactors has contributed to improvements in reactor design and process control.
“Modeling the relationships among fluid dynamics, light distribution, and growth kinetics in PBRs has contributed to improvements in reactor design and process control.”
From Microalgae biotechnology and its role in sustainable and healthy food design (2025) · cites this paper as Papacek et al., 2018
The Methods section describes a model integrating fluid flow, irradiance distribution, and microalgae growth. The Conclusions say it can evaluate reactor architectures and operating conditions and is suited to formulating optimal-control problems. The paper does not report that this modeling has already improved reactor designs or process control. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThis modeling performs photoperiod and mixing regime simulation through computational fluid dynamics coupled with biological models.
“This modeling performs photoperiod and mixing regime simulation through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with biological models (Gao et al., 2018; Papacek et al., 2018).”
From Microalgae biotechnology and its role in sustainable and healthy food design (2025) · cites this paper as Papacek et al., 2018
The Methods and the flashing-light case study (pages unavailable) describe CFD coupled with photosynthetic reaction kinetics to simulate mixing-induced light–dark cycles. The paper does not show a simulation of photoperiod as a separately varied light–dark schedule; its simulated light fluctuations arise from mixing. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Microalgae biotechnology and its role in sustainable and healthy food design
Schneider, A. T., Machado, R. L. S., Dutra, D. A., Machado, E. F., Dias, R. R., Deprá, M. C., Zepka, L. Q., & Jacob-Lopes, E. (2025) · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology · doi:10.3389/fbioe.2025.1716473 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“This modeling performs photoperiod and mixing regime simulation through computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) coupled with biological models (Gao et al., 2018; Papacek et al., 2018).”
- Authors
- Papacek, S., Jablonsky, J., & Petera, K.
- Affiliations
- Czech Technical University in Prague (CZ)
- ORCID
- Petera, Karel
- Venue
- BMC Systems Biology
- Published
- 2018-11
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- S5
- Pages
- 93-93
- ISSN
- 1752-0509 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6245592
- OpenAlex
- W2901039845
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Systems Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Jihočeská Univerzita v Českých Budějovicích
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Fluid Dynamics and Mixing
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control
- Keywords
- microalgae cultivation, photobioreactors, photosynthesis, photoinhibition, reaction-diffusion-advection model, computational fluid dynamics, Navier-Stokes equations, Beer-Lambert law, bioreactor mixing
- MeSH terms
- Computer Simulation, Models, Biological, Photosynthesis, Culture Techniques, Hydrodynamics, Microalgae
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