The control of glucose concentration during yeast fed-batch cultivation using a fast measurement complemented by an extended Kalman filter

Abstract

In this contribution results are presented from the control of glucose during a yeast fed-batch cultivation. For glucose measurements a special flow injection analysis (FIA) system was employed, which uses a glucose oxidase solution instead of immobilized enzymes. To avoid the large delay time caused by probing systems samples containing cells, i.e., samples containing the ordinary culture broth, are injected into the FIA system. Based on a special evaluation method the glucose concentration can be measured with a delay time of about 60 s. Employing an extended Kalman filter, the biomass, the glucose concentration as well as the μmax (Monod model) are estimated. Based on the estimation a feed forward and a PI-control with a set point of 0.5 g/l was carried out. The mean deviation of the set point and the estimated value as well as the set point and the measured value were 0.05 and 0.11 g/l respectively for a control period of 8 h producing a cell dry mass of more than 6 g/l.