Dynamics Analysis and Biomass Productivity Optimisation of a Microbial Cultivation Process through Substrate Regulation

Abstract

A microbial cultivation process model with variable biomass yield, control of substrate concentration, and biomass recycle is formulated, where the biochemical kinetics follows an extension of the Monod and Contois models. Control of substrate concentration allows for indirect monitoring of biomass and dissolved oxygen concentrations and consequently obtaining high yield and productivity of biomass. Dynamics analysis of the proposed model is carried out and the existence of order-1 periodic solution is deduced with a formulation of the period, which provides a theoretical possibility to convert the state-dependent control to a periodic one while keeping the dynamics unchanged. Moreover, the stability of the order-1 periodic solution is verified by a geometric method. The stability ensures a certain robustness of the adopted control; that is, even with an inaccurately detected substrate concentration or a deviation, the system will be always stable at the order-1 periodic solution under the control. The simulations are carried out to complement the theoretical results and optimisation of the biomass productivity is presented.