EVALUATION OF MICROALGAE SEGREGATION IN A TUBULAR PHOTOBIOREACTOR USING CFD

Microalgae has many uses, such as biofuel production and CO2 capture. A challenge to designers and researchers is to improve photobioreactors’ efficiency in order to lower the production costs. Mixing is one of the main elements to be considered in designing a photobioreactor. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a trustful technique which can be used to study fluid flows in detail. The aim of this work is to evaluate microalgae segregation in a straight tubular photobioreactor through CFD simulations. A geometry representing a section of a photobioreactor was built. The Eulerian-Eulerian approach was used to model the two-phase flow. The maximum concentration recorded in the whole domain was 6.5 times the inlet concentration, and it happened on the top of a curve, near its end. A relatively uniform precipitation was perceived on the top of the two tubes. The usefulness of CFD for aiding the development of photobioreactors has been highlighted.