Determination of Microalgae Growth in Different Temperature Condition Using a Population Balance Equation

Abstract

Microalgae are among the most promising alternative energy resources. To increase the productivity of microalgae, numerous amounts of studies were carried on in the past decades. Apart for experimental works, it is possible to find a large variety of models applied to the growth of microalgae. That becomes particularly useful if we consider the large amount of time and resources needed for experiments. This paper aims the development of a microalgae growth model utilizing the population balance equation. Other than the cell concentration over the time, the model can determine the size distribution of the microalgae population and the number of daughter cells generated through division of mother cells. The size-dependent growth rate is analysed for the proposed two cases: 22 °C and 27 °C.