Résumé : In this study, the application of Lipschitz observers to the monitoring of cultures of micro-algae in photo-bioreactors is investigated. To design the observer, the dynamic model has to be structured into an observable linear part and a nonlinear Lipschitz part. A systematic method is proposed for the definition of the linear part, so as to ensure that it is stable and observable. The observer is tested in a real-life application, namely cultures of micro-algae Scenesdesmus obliquus, where the internal quota has to be estimated from either biomass measurements only or biomass and medium substrate concentrations. The Lipschitz observer shows robust performance, as compared to the extended Kalman filter.