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Industrial Experience with Oxygen Control of a Fed-batch Filamentous Fungal Fermentation

Authors:Bodizs Levente, EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Faria Nuno, Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark
Titica Mariana, Laboratoire de Genie des Procedes,CRTT, Saint-Nazaire Cedex, France
Srinivasan Bala, EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Jorgensen Henrik, Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark
Bonvin Dominique, EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Dochain Denis, CESAME, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Topic:6.1 Chemical Process Control
Session:Knowledge Driven Batch Processes
Keywords: Biological processes, filamentous fungal fermentation, closed-loop operation, cascade control, model predictive control.

Abstract

Fed-batch filamentous fungal fermentations at the industrial level are operated today either in an open-loop manner or through simple PI control, both with limited performance. The main challenge presented by such an operation is that, due to the presence of uncertainties of the inoculum, the process can go into oxygen limitation that severely affects production. In this paper, a cascade control strategy for regulation of the dissolved oxygen is presented, which incorporates available auxiliary measurements to improve performance. This strategy is formulated based on the investigation of the structural elements of a simplified process model developed from experimental data. Experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed control strategy.