The ALGROW project aims to develop advanced control algorithms for the photosynthetic growth of microalgae in photobioreactor. Thus, two major objectives can be identified:

– Development of new kinetic models for the growth rate of microalgae that embed, besides the light, the pH influence to investigate the interferences between the control channels;

– Development and validation of advanced control algorithms.

The proposed model will be able to describe the most important state variables of the biological process and also the pH, and will be helpful for the design of advanced control algorithms. The already existing model will be extended and used further for control purposes. Due to the multivariable nature of the process, various control channels will be investigated along with the interferences between them.

The controller commonly used (for example, the PID controller) has a fixed structure and adjustable parameters. The static and dynamic requirements of the closed-loop system are met by selecting proper values for the controller parameters in the field. For the photosynthetic growth of microalgae in photobioreactor, we will apply the Quantitative Process Control Theory (QPCT) to extend the ideas and methods of PID controller. Such an advanced control technique (QPCT) could simplify the design procedure, as well as achieve good performance for controller.