(10a) Bioprocess Model and Economic Analysis of Microalgae Production in Flat-Panel Photobioreactors Taking into Account Geospatial Factors

Microalgae are a promising feedstock for production of fuels and value-added chemicals. In order to assess the economic, energetic and environmental performance of algae based system in an industrial scale biorefinery, it is important to model algae productivity accurately. In this work, a first principle based growth model of microalgae is developed for flat panel photobioreactors taking into account the transport and biological processes. The primary factors that affect microalgae growth, such as solar irradiance, temperature, specific characteristics of species, uptake rates of nutrients and carbon dioxide, are incorporated in the bioreactor process model. Year-round algae productivity potential is computed for different locations to elucidate the implications of climate variations for the locations. Based on the yearly microalgal productivity for different regions, economic analysis is conducted to quantify the microalgae production cost for the different locations. As there are significant uncertainties associated with the different parameters of the growth model and economic analyses, detailed sensitivity analyses are performed. Results show that microalgae production cost is heavily influenced by climatic factors like solar irradiance and air temperature as well as by different equipment and process design factors. Results from the dynamic model can be used to optimize and scaling up of algae systems for efficient production of fuels and chemicals for variety of algae species as well as geospatial locations.