CFD modeling of CO2 fixation by microalgae cultivated in a lab scale photobioreactor

The green microalga Chlorella vulgaris has been studied for efficient fixation of carbon dioxide, CO2, from elevated concentrations of in-feed gas flows. In this work, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model for algae cultivation including the dependence on CO2 concentration in liquid has been derived based on cultivation experiments of Chlorella vulgaris. The experiments were performed in a laboratory scale cylindrical stirred tank reactor with a range of enriched CO2 concentrations in-feed (0.04–50 %). The model provided by Béchet et al. (2015) for algae cultivation considering dependence on local light, algae concentration and temperature has been implemented for CFD and modified for comprising CO2 dependence. The model has been verified with experimental results for the algae productivity showing the proper trends for dissolved CO2 concentrations and algae concentrations. Thus, the developed CFD model can serve as a tool for evaluating photobioreactor performance for CO2 capture.