Hierarchical in silico validation procedure for biomass estimation techniques based on dielectric spectroscopy

Abstract In order to obtain an accurate estimation of the biomass as a function of the permittivity of the suspension, a simple in silico hierarchical procedure is proposed. The procedure is designed to perform the homogenization from the micro-scale to the macro-scale exploiting very simple analytical models and simulation setups under the hypothesis of diluted suspension (biomass less than 0.2). Results obtained show that it is possible to overcome some difficulties concerning the analytical treatment of the cellular shape by considering a sphere with the same dielectric behavior in the quantitative analysis of the biomass. The entire study is based on simulations performed in order to verify the correctness of the procedure. Obtained data are used in a biomass estimation scenario to show the efficacy of the procedure.