(636a) Dynamic Unit Operation Model for Industrial Fermentation Processes

Fermentation is a central unit operation in food, pharmaceutical and biofuels processes. In recent years, large research efforts have been made to develop biological processes to produce ethanol and platform chemicals from sugars, especially from lignocellulosic materials. On the other hand, genome-scale models for micro-organisms are continuously being developed and used in the development of new strains. Combining these models to process engineering applications can be seen as a great opportunity for design and optimization of fermentation processes.

We present a mathematical framework for unit operation models for dynamic fermentation design and operation. The model is formulated with three components: a set of differential and algebraic equations containing a model for cell metabolism, model of metabolite transport though the cell wall, and model of metabolite concentrations in the fermentor. This work extends previous work [1,2] with the emphasis on systematizing the model construction through parameter estimation for different fermentation systems. The most important parameters are detected using sensitivity analysis. Results of three case studies will be presented and guidelines on applying the framework for new micro-organisms will be covered.

References:

1. Raghunathan, A. U., Perez-Correa, J. R., Agosin, E., & Biegler, L. T. (2006). Parameter estimation in metabolic flux balance models for batch fermentation-formulation and solution using differential variational inequalities. Annals of Operations Research, 148, 251?270.

2. U. Kaplan, M. Turkay, L. Biegler, B. Karasözen, Modelling and simulation of metabolic networks for estimation of biomass accumulation parameters, Discrete Applied Mathematics 1757 (2009) 2483-2493