A Virtual Laboratory for Tubular Photobioreactors for Outdoor Microalgae Culture

This paper describes an interactive virtual laboratory for experimenting on an outdoor tubular photobioreactor. The virtual lab lets users simulate and study in a practical way the evolution of an outdoor culture of the microalga Scenedesmus Almeriensis in a generic tubular photobioreactor during specific periods of time, being possible to preset different experiences by changing the geographic location of the system, the solar irradiation profile, the conditions of the culture (pH, biomass concentrations, dissolved O2, inyected CO2, etc.), the photobioreactor geometry, or the control modes applied to some variables. The design of a highly interactive user interface makes possible to introduce on-the-fly unexpected working conditions of the actuators or fluctuations of the sunlight. The virtual lab has been developed with Easy Java Simulations, an open source tool for instructors with limited programming skills who want to create Java applications and applets.