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Estimation of kinetic rates in a baker's yeast fed-batch bioprocess by using non-linear observers

2012; Institution of Engineering and Technology; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1049/iet-cta.2011.0067

1751-8652

Dan Selişteanu, Emil Petre, Monica Roman, Dorin Şendrescu,

Extremum Seeking Control Systems

The growth rates of the micro-organisms in bioreactors are described by complex kinetic expressions, and the modelling and estimation of such kinetics are essential for the design of control strategies. This study deals with the online estimation of kinetic rates of a baker's yeast process, taking place inside a fed-batch bioreactor. This bioprocess is widely used in bioindustry; its model is highly non-linear and, furthermore, the available online measurements are missing and the reaction kinetics is not perfectly known. The unknown kinetics is estimated by using non-linear observers, based on high-gain approach. Two high-gain observers are designed and implemented: one for the specific growth rates and the other for the reaction rates of the baker's yeast bioprocess. The multiple estimation schemes do not require any model for the kinetic rates. The tuning of the proposed observers is reduced to the calibration of a single parameter. An observer-based estimator is also implemented in order to use it for comparisons. Numerical simulations are included to test the behaviour and the performance of the proposed observers.