Project description

Project summary:
The main objective of BIOCON project is the experimental analysis and the efficiency increasing through automation methods of a
complex plant of biorefinery type. The biorefinary plant consists in a coupling of two processes: an anaerobic digestion one and a
microalgae photosynthetic growth process in photobioreactors. This plant is used for obtaining biomass from microalgae in order
to produce components with added value, bio-mitigation of the CO2 emissions obtained from methane combustion and its use as
a substrate for the microalgae photosynthetic growth process. At the same time, the use of the biomass residues which remained
after the biodiesel extraction as a substrate for the biogas production in the anaerobic phase and the process of methane
obtaining through anaerobic treatment of the wastewaters are also studied. To achieve the project objectives with the available
resources, a biorefinary plant having a structure based on a modern concept of HILS (Hardware in the Loop Simulations) has
been adopted in the project. This structure means the coupling between an experimental structure (the photobioreactor for the
microalgae photosynthetic growth process) with a software structure (the anaerobic digestor). It can be mentioned that the HILS
structure used in the project behaves similarly to the experimental plant of biorefinary type.
The scientific contributions consist in automation solutions for a very complex process (with strong nonlinearities, characterized by
parametric and model uncertainties and affected by disturbances); mathematical models for the two processes, the anaerobic
digestor and photobioreactor, the coupling between a software entity (the anaerobic digestor) and an experimental one (the
photobioreactor for the microalgae photosynthetic growth process, a prototype of the biorefinary plant (in a HILS structure)
controlled by an advanced system implemented on a process computer, advanced control solutions for the overall biorefinary
plant. The main novelty and originality characteristics of the project consist in the systemic approach (modeling and control) of the
biorefinery for which few references can be found in the literature. The following ma objectives of the project can be mentioned:
modeling of the anaerobic digestion, modeling and identification of the microalgae photosynthetic growth processes based on
experiments carried out on the pilot plant, synthesis of control algorithms (fuzzy and optimal) for both processes (anaerobic
digester and photobioreactor) treated individually as well as coupled, through numerical simulations and implemented on the
biorefinary plant designed based on the HILS concept. Considering the current competitive context for obtaining energy
resources, the project aims to encourage the use of anaerobic treatment, providing solutions for the treatment of the residual
nutrients in the effluents of anaerobic stage through photosynthetic growth processes, conforming at the same time with the
required quality standards. The project also encourages the photosynthetic growth processes through the usage of low-cost
substrates, such as the wastewaters and the CO2 resulted through methane combustion. It must be mentioned that both
processes and technologies are approached in the project through a systemic-engineering manner, specific to process
automation. The team involved in the project consists in four entities, each of them having a rich experience in conducting
scientific research projects: Coord. Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, P1 University of Craiova, P2 Polytechnic

University of Timisoara and P3 TeamNet Engineering Company. The team consists in specialists in automation, process
informatics, biotechnology, thus fulfilling the interdisciplinary characteristics of the project. The workload is rigorous and well
balanced, all the involved institutions having a high level human resources and corresponding logistics, thus promising positive
premises in reaching the expected results.