Review on instrumentation, modelling and automatic control for microalgae culture

Microalgae have been recognized as versatile microorganisms that are used in various applications. Their capacity of converting sunlight and carbon dioxide in diverse metabolites makes them an efficient microbiological factory. Despite these characteristics, there is a general trend on optimizing the microalgae cultures considering the potential industrial and economical benefits that can be obtained from them. This task is closely related to the instruments used to monitor and regulate the reactor activity where the microalgae are growing. Moreover, these instruments are useless if they are not associated to an automatic control law that can force the optimal performance in the reactor operation. This chapter reviews the recent results on instrumentation strategies as well as the novel automatic control methods that have been used to optimize reaction operation to improve microalgae productivity either increasing biomass or their corresponding metabolites concentrations.