Appropriate levels of complexity for modeling SSF bioreactors

Abstract

While attention should certainly be given to furthering the development of fully-mechanistic models, at the moment fast-solving models are sufficiently accurate to be useful tools in the design of bioreactors and the optimization of their operation. The rest of the book concentrates on fast-solving models. Chapters 14 to 17 describe approaches to establishing and modeling the growth kinetics in a manner appropriate for incorporation into fast-solving models. Chapters 18 to 20 show how the heat and mass transfer phenomena within bioreactors can be described at an appropriate level of detail for a fast-solving model. Chapters 22 to 25 then present several fast-solving models and show how they can be used to give insights into optimal design and operation. We are confident that readers, with relatively little effort, can adapt these models to their own systems, and obtain useful results from doing so. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.