Daytime/Nighttime Event-Based PI Control for the pH of a Microalgae Raceway Reactor

In this paper, a new solution to improve the traditional control operation of raceway microalgae reactors is presented. The control strategy is based on an event-based method that can be easily coupled to a classical time-driven proportional-integral controller, simplifying the design process approach. The results of a standard Proportional-Integral (PI) controller, as well as of two event-based architectures, are presented in simulation and compared with each other and with traditional On/Off control. It is demonstrated that the event-based PI controller—operating during the whole day instead of only during daytime—achieves a better performance by reducing the actuator effort and saving costs related to gas consumption.