Monitoring and Control System used in Microalgae Crop

This paper presents a monitoring and control system developed with the purpose to increase the reproducibility of microalgae production processes, achieving more effectiveness of casual-analytic physiologic research, the verification of process models and the development of bioprocess. It also controls of form web the following variables: temperature and photoperiod, the equipment was tested on a Haematococcus pluvialis crop. The settings of experimentation were: photoperiod 18/6 (light hours/dark) given by the extensions of blue SMD LEDs (380<;λ<;470 nm), the agitation speed of 720 RPM and temperature of 24°C. The settings for the controlled crop were the same except the light that, for this case, was natural. It was found that the system is able to control automatically the process variables permitting the continuous monitoring of the experiments, removing barriers of time and place. At an institutional level, the system has brought benefits allowing the decongestion of places as saving time for both students and researchers. At a level of bioprocesses of researching, it was determined that both kinetic of microalgae growth and quantity of astaxanthin that is produced are incremented when the crop is illuminating by short wavelength, blue light.