Rapid process synthesis supported by a unified modular software framework

Abstract

Although known to be very powerful, the widespread application of model-based techniques is still significantly hampered in the area of bio-processes. Reasons for this situation can be found along the whole chain to set up and implement such approaches. In a time-consuming step, models are typically hand-crafted. Whether alternatives of better models exist to actually fulfill the final goals is undocumented, most often even unknown. In a next step, model-based process control methods are hand-coded in an error-prone procedure. For many of these methods given in the literature, only simulation studies are shown, leaving the interested reader with the unanswered question whether the implementation of a specific method in a real process is viable. As the potentially time-consuming implementation of such a method presents a risk for a rapid process development, promising candidates may be overlooked. To remediate this unsatisfactory situation, a combination of theoretical methods and information technology is proposed here. By an exemplarily realized software tool, it is shown how such an environment helps to promote model-based optimization, supervision, and control of bio-processes and allows for an inexpensive test of new ideas as well in real-life experiments. The contribution concentrates on an overview of a possible software architecture with respect to necessary methods and a meaningful information strategy, highlighting some of the more crucial building blocks. Experimental results exploiting parts of the proposed methods are given for a yeast strain synthesizing a product of industrial interest.