DigitAlgaesation aims to propose a digitalisation approach to optimising control and operation of microalgae cultivation processes so as to maximise their light conversion efficiency and to drive the sustainable portfolio of microalgae-based processes towards commodities and energy markets.
Artificial intelligence and automatic model-based control approaches can be a great help to understand, optimise, and in turn remedy, the gap between lab-scale observations and the industrial-scale reality.
This objective, however, needs to address the fact that the digitalisation of industrial production systems based on photosynthetic organisms proves more challenging than that of bacterial or yeast cultures. To a large extent, this added complexity stems from (i) the wide range of mechanisms used by microalgae to respond to light and other local environmental factors, and (ii) the inherently dynamic feature of large cultivation systems, where light and temperature fluctuate constantly.