Selective pH and dissolved oxygen control strategy for a raceway reactor within an event-based approach

•We present event-based control scheme for pH and DO simultaneous control in raceway reactor.•The presented control scheme adapts the control scheme execution to the proper process dynamics.•Developed algorithm improves the microorganism growth condition.

In this study, we introduce a selective pH and dissolved oxygen control strategy for a raceway reactor with an event-based approach. In such a configuration, the pH value is prioritized over the dissolved oxygen value, since it has a critical influence on process performance. On the other hand, the dissolved oxygen also influences biomass productivity and should be kept within the optimal photosynthesis rate limits. The proposed control scheme has been implemented in a pilot-scale raceway reactor, where it was used for simultaneous pH and dissolved oxygen control. The results demonstrated that the analyzed control algorithm improves the microorganism growth condition and, consequently, overall production is increased.