BiRD
A toolbox to simulate and analyze different designs of bioreactors in OpenFOAM.
https://github.com/nrel/bioreactordesign
Category: Renewable Energy
Sub Category: Bioenergy
Keywords
bioreactor inverse-modelling meshing openfoam postprocessing
Last synced: about 19 hours ago
JSON representation
Repository metadata
Bio Reactor Design (BiRD): a toolbox to simulate and analyze different designs of bioreactors in OpenFOAM
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/nrel/bioreactordesign
- Owner: NREL
- License: bsd-3-clause
- Created: 2023-05-17T00:21:33.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-12-10T18:34:40.000Z (15 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-14T08:49:27.696Z (11 days ago)
- Topics: bioreactor, inverse-modelling, meshing, openfoam, postprocessing
- Language: Liquid
- Homepage: https://nrel.github.io/BioReactorDesign/
- Size: 115 MB
- Stars: 32
- Watchers: 9
- Forks: 14
- Open Issues: 10
- Releases: 2
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
README.md
Bio Reactor Design (BiRD)

Quick start
- Follow the steps to install the python package (see
Installation of python package for developersorInstallation of python package for usersbelow) - Follow the steps to install the BiRD OpenFOAM solver (see
Installation of BiRD OpenFOAM solver (for developers and users)below) - Check that you can run any of the tutorial cases, for ex:
cd tutorial_cases/bubble_column_20L
bash run.sh
Installation of python package for developers
conda create -c conda-forge --name bird python=3.10 paraview
conda activate bird
git clone https://github.com/NREL/BioReactorDesign.git
cd BioReactorDesign
pip install -e .
Installation of python package for users
conda create -c conda-forge --name bird python=3.10 paraview
conda activate bird
pip install nrel-bird=={version}
We highly recommend that you specify the version explicitly as the library is still rapidly changing.
Installation of BiRD OpenFOAM solver (for developers and users)
- Activate your OpenFOAM-9 environment (
source <OpenFOAM-9 installation directory>/etc/<your-shell>rc) cd OFsolvers/birdmultiphaseEulerFoam/- Compile
./Allwmake
Documentation
See the nrel.github.io/BioReactorDesign.
References
Software record SWR 24-35
To cite BiRD, please use these articles on CO2 interphase mass transfer (open access link ) on aerobic bioreactors and on butanediol synthesis
@article{hassanaly2025bayesian,
title={Bayesian calibration of bubble size dynamics applied to CO2 gas fermenters},
author={Hassanaly, Malik and Parra-Alvarez, John M and Rahimi, Mohammad J and Municchi, Federico and Sitaraman, Hariswaran},
journal={Chemical Engineering Research and Design},
volume={215},
pages={312--328},
year={2025},
publisher={Elsevier}
}
@article{rahimi2018computational,
title={Computational fluid dynamics study of full-scale aerobic bioreactors: Evaluation of gas--liquid mass transfer, oxygen uptake, and dynamic oxygen distribution},
author={Rahimi, Mohammad J and Sitaraman, Hariswaran and Humbird, David and Stickel, Jonathan J},
journal={Chemical Engineering Research and Design},
volume={139},
pages={283--295},
year={2018},
publisher={Elsevier}
}
@article{sitaraman2023reacting,
title={A reacting multiphase computational flow model for 2, 3-butanediol synthesis in industrial-scale bioreactors},
author={Sitaraman, Hariswaran and Lischeske, James and Lu, Yimin and Stickel, Jonathan},
journal={Chemical Engineering Research and Design},
volume={197},
pages={38--52},
year={2023},
publisher={Elsevier}
}
Acknowledgments
This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. This work was supported by funding from DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) CO2RUe consortium. The research was performed using computational resources sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
Owner metadata
- Name: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Login: NREL
- Email:
- Kind: organization
- Description:
- Website: http://www.nrel.gov
- Location: Golden, CO
- Twitter:
- Company:
- Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1906800?v=4
- Repositories: 599
- Last ynced at: 2024-12-18T09:41:07.898Z
- Profile URL: https://github.com/NREL
GitHub Events
Total
- Create event: 54
- Release event: 2
- Issues event: 24
- Watch event: 18
- Delete event: 48
- Member event: 3
- Issue comment event: 29
- Push event: 311
- Pull request review comment event: 8
- Pull request review event: 26
- Pull request event: 109
- Fork event: 8
Last Year
- Create event: 41
- Release event: 1
- Issues event: 10
- Watch event: 13
- Delete event: 40
- Member event: 3
- Issue comment event: 19
- Push event: 232
- Pull request review comment event: 7
- Pull request review event: 18
- Pull request event: 80
- Fork event: 7
Committers metadata
Last synced: 2 days ago
Total Commits: 756
Total Committers: 12
Avg Commits per committer: 63.0
Development Distribution Score (DDS): 0.049
Commits in past year: 325
Committers in past year: 5
Avg Commits per committer in past year: 65.0
Development Distribution Score (DDS) in past year: 0.031
| Name | Commits | |
|---|---|---|
| Malik | m****y@g****m | 719 |
| fmuni | f****i@g****m | 17 |
| Rahimi | m****i@n****v | 4 |
| jainprana | P****n@n****v | 2 |
| hsitaram | h****n@g****m | 2 |
| Mohammad Rahimi | m****i@k****v | 2 |
| Malik Hassanaly | m****a@x****v | 2 |
| Malik Hassanaly | m****a@k****v | 2 |
| Malik Hassanaly | m****a@e****v | 2 |
| Hariswaran Sitaraman | h****m@k****v | 2 |
| Malik Hassanaly | m****a@e****v | 1 |
| Malik Hassanaly | m****a@e****v | 1 |
Committer domains:
- kl3.head.cm.kestrel.hpc.nrel.gov: 2
- nrel.gov: 2
- el2.ib0.cm.hpc.nrel.gov: 1
- el3.ib0.cm.hpc.nrel.gov: 1
- el1.ib0.cm.hpc.nrel.gov: 1
- x3100c0s5b0n0.head.cm.kestrel.hpc.nrel.gov: 1
- kd5.head.cm.kestrel.hpc.nrel.gov: 1
Issue and Pull Request metadata
Last synced: 17 days ago
Total issues: 32
Total pull requests: 169
Average time to close issues: 4 months
Average time to close pull requests: 2 days
Total issue authors: 6
Total pull request authors: 5
Average comments per issue: 0.63
Average comments per pull request: 0.17
Merged pull request: 133
Bot issues: 0
Bot pull requests: 0
Past year issues: 7
Past year pull requests: 101
Past year average time to close issues: N/A
Past year average time to close pull requests: 3 days
Past year issue authors: 3
Past year pull request authors: 5
Past year average comments per issue: 0.29
Past year average comments per pull request: 0.19
Past year merged pull request: 72
Past year bot issues: 0
Past year bot pull requests: 0
Top Issue Authors
- malihass (26)
- fmuni (2)
- sustainapower (1)
- MoritzImendoerffer (1)
- djinnome (1)
- asela326 (1)
Top Pull Request Authors
- malihass (157)
- mjrahimi (4)
- fmuni (4)
- sabinala (2)
- jainprana (2)
Top Issue Labels
- good first issue (2)
- documentation (1)
Top Pull Request Labels
- good first issue (2)
Package metadata
- Total packages: 2
-
Total downloads:
- pypi: 358 last-month
- Total dependent packages: 0 (may contain duplicates)
- Total dependent repositories: 0 (may contain duplicates)
- Total versions: 47
- Total maintainers: 1
pypi.org: nlr-bird
Bio Reactor Design (BiRD): a toolbox to simulate and analyze different designs of bioreactors in OpenFOAM
- Homepage: https://github.com/NREL/BioReactorDesign
- Documentation: https://nrel.github.io/BioReactorDesign/
- Licenses: BSD 3-Clause
- Latest release: 0.0.52 (published 17 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-19T23:06:12.199Z (6 days ago)
- Versions: 1
- Dependent Packages: 0
- Dependent Repositories: 0
- Downloads: 123 Last month
-
Rankings:
- Dependent packages count: 8.19%
- Average: 27.243%
- Dependent repos count: 46.296%
- Maintainers (1)
pypi.org: nrel-bird
Bio Reactor Design (BiRD): a toolbox to simulate and analyze different designs of bioreactors in OpenFOAM
- Homepage: https://github.com/NREL/BioReactorDesign
- Documentation: https://nrel.github.io/BioReactorDesign/
- Licenses: BSD 3-Clause
- Latest release: 0.0.51 (published about 1 month ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-19T23:06:12.475Z (6 days ago)
- Versions: 46
- Dependent Packages: 0
- Dependent Repositories: 0
- Downloads: 235 Last month
-
Rankings:
- Dependent packages count: 9.811%
- Average: 37.272%
- Dependent repos count: 64.733%
- Maintainers (1)
Dependencies
- actions/checkout v3 composite
- actions/setup-python v4 composite
- black *
- imageio *
- isort *
- matplotlib ==3.2.2
- numpy *
- numpy-stl *
- scipy *
Score: 12.105898656559647