title: Estimation ofChlamydomonas reinhardtiibiomass concentration from chord length distribution data.
abstract: A novel method to estimate the concentration ofChlamydomonas reinhardtiibiomass was developed. The method employs the chord length distribution information gathered by means of a focused beam reflectance probe immersed in the culture sample and processes the data through a feedforward multilayer perceptron. The multilayer perceptron architecture was systematically optimised through the application of a simulated annealing algorithm. The method developed can predict the concentration of microalgae with acceptable accuracy and, with further development, it could be implemented online to monitor the aggregation status and biomass concentration of microalgal cultures.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Chemistry Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, Madrid, 28040 Spain.
authors.forename: Patricio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lopez-Exposito
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Chemistry Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, Madrid, 28040 Spain.
authors.forename: Angeles Blanco
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Suarez
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Chemistry Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, Madrid, 28040 Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Negro
keywords: Artificial neural networks; Estimation of microalgal biomass concentration; Focused beam reflectance measurement; Monitoring of microalgal cultures