Simple models to accurately reproduce CO2 recycling into acetic acid through Moorella Thermoacetica

Modelling photo-bioreactors is challenging due to the complexity of the physical interactions that govern these processes. Typically, these models are solved using resource-demanding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, these simulations would benefit from simpler, yet accurate and physically robust models that focus on the general chemical transformation. This allows the thermodynamics and stoichiometry of the reaction to be taken into account explicitly, giving more accurate results. Furthermore, these simpler models can reproduce laboratory-scale observations, and this information could be scaled up to more detailed simulations by embedding them in CFD. Here we present a general methodology to build these simplified models using CO2 digestion by Moorella Thermoacetica doped with artificial photosynthesizers, obtaining errors below 20%.