A NEW GROWTH KINETIC-MODEL FOR PHOTO-AUTOTROPHIC MICROALGAE CULTURE

In a photo-autotrophic microalgae culture, a linear functional relation between a specific growth rate and a light energy absorption rate has been adopted. However, this relation does not always hold for a wide range of variation of a specific light-absorption rate. Therefore, in this paper we have proposed a new model for growth kinetics as follows: mu=k(xi-a)(1/n) k=alpha exp(-betaI(o)) where mu is a specific growth rate, xi is a specific light absorption rate and I(o) is an incident light intensity, and a, n, alpha, beta are constants. The model was verified by experimental data obtained from a Chlorella ellipsoidea photoautotrophic culture.