Optimizing the anaerobic digestion of microalgae in a coupled process

This work is devoted to maximizing the production of methane in a bioreactor coupling an anaerobic digester and a culture of micro-algae limited by light. The decision parameter is the dilution rate which is chosen as a control, and we enforce periodic constraints in order to repeat the same operation every day. The system is gathered into a three-dimensional system taking into account a day-night model of the light in the culture of micro-algae. Applying Pontryagin maximum principle, the necessary conditions on optimal trajectories indicate that the control consists of bang and/or singular arcs. We provide numerical simulations by both direct and indirect methods, which show the link between the light model and the structure of optimal solutions.