Use of a Heating System to Control the Probiotic Beverage Production in Batch Bioreactor

Abstract

Fermentation is a crucial bioengineering process, existentially important for modern society. The most commonly used production unit for this process is the batch bioreactor. Its main advantage is unsophisticated construction, which unfortunately results in its incapability of controlling the transient state of the fermentation process. Control of the fermentation can significantly improve the quality of the product and the economy of the process; therefore, it is useful for bioreactors to be equipped with a control system. Based on the experimental results, we used an optimization method to identify a mathematical model that describes the impact of the bioreactor’s temperature on the fermentation’s transient process. The obtained model was applied for the design and synthesis of the closed-loop control system. Simulations and experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed control system. In this way, we can ensure the consistent quality of the produced probiotic product, increase the amount of the product, and shorten the fermentation time. The original results display the feasibility of the closed-loop control of the batch bioreactor’s fermentation process by changing the temperature. So far, the process has been carried without a closed-loop control system. The problem is current and has not yet been solved sufficiently. There are many attempts published; one of the last shows the possibility of controlling the fermentation process by changing the oxygen supply, which is more complex and expensive for realization than the solution from our study.