Modeling and control of a multipurpose biotechnological plant. Photobioreactor modeling

The present paper is the first of a series of two papers that concerns the modeling of a complex multipurpose biotechnological plant that consist in two interconnected subsystems, namely an anaerobic digestor and a photobioreactor. The paper is presenting a complex analytical model for the photobioreactor that embeds the effect of pH on the photosynthetic growth of microalgae. The static characteristics of the multivariable non-square system are discussed along with the solution for its reduction when control strategies are aimed. Simplified dynamic models for the design of control loops were obtained through Hankel analysis.