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Content archived on 2024-04-15

FERMENTOR MODELLING FOR AUTOMATION AND OPTIMAL PROCESS CONTROL

Objective

BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF REACTOR DYNAMICS. INCREASE IN THE CURRENT PRODUCTIVITY OF BIOMASS AND PROTEIN.
Pharmaceutical industries use fermentation processes for the production of several base products. This type of process is controlled by traditional monitoring mechanisms which maintain the fermentation processes within predetermined operating ranges and thus prevent the occurrence of large scale failures. However, operating factors are not kept at reaction optima since control does not take into account the kinetics of the various growth conditions.
Products, such as enzymes, interferons or human insulin, produced by special strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli: maximum oxygen input has to be guaranteed and the substrate concentration (carbon source) has to be held in a narrow range. Due to the lack of sensors, the substrate and biomass concentrations cannot be measured directly. Therefore, they must be estimated mathematically. A model for the E coli process was developed, implemented in a computer system and verified. It was possible to calculate accurate estimates of the entire process status during fermentation. Thus, the process could be optimally controlled increasing the productivity as compared to conventional techniques by a factor of 2. Also, an experimental laboratory bioreactor was designed, built and tested. It was possible with such a bioreactor to reach a cell concentration higher than that in a conventional one, when oxygen was supplied with air.
THE SCOPE OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MATHEMATICAL MODEL TAKING INTO ACCOUNT OPERATING PARAMETERS AND BIOCHEMICAL KINETICS AND THE APPLICATION OF SAME TO IMPROVE THE OPERATION OF BATCH FERMENTATION PROCESSES.

THE INTENTION IS TO USE THIS MODEL IN INDUSTRIAL OPERATION FOR AN OPTIMUM CONTROL OF FERMENTATION PROCESSES, BY MEANS OF PROGRAMMABLE MICRO-PROCESSORS AND/OR MICRO-COMPUTERS.

THE WORKING GROUP OF THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG WILL DO THE BASIC MODELLING OF THE FERMENTATION PROCESS : DYNAMIC IDENTIFICATION OF MODEL PARAMETERS, TEST OF SUITABILITY OF MODEL WITH RESPECT TO OPTIMAL CONTROL STRATEGIES, IN BENCH SCALE EXPERIMENTS WITH A COMPUTER ON LINE COUPLED TO THE PROCESS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED USING A SUITABLE INDUSTRIAL MICROORGANISMM.

Programme(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
EU contribution
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Address
Harburger Schloßstraße 37-39
21079 Hamburg
Germany

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Total cost

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Participants (1)

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