Optimal control of a fed-batch fermentation involving multiple feeds

Abstract

A nonlinear dynamical system, in which the feed rates of glycerol and alkali are taken as the control functions, is first proposed to formulate the fed-batch culture of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) production. To maximize the 1,3-PD concentration at the terminal time, a constrained optimal control model is then presented. A solution approach is developed to seek the optimal feed rates based on control vector parametrization method and improved differential evolution algorithm. The proposed methodology yielded an increase by 32.17 of 1,3-PD concentration at the terminal time. Copyright © 2012 Chongyang Liu et al.