PARAMETRIC SENSITIVITY OF STREPTOKINASE FERMENTATION THROUGH MODEL-REDUCTION BY A SEMIEMPIRICAL APPROACH

A model comprising five coupled ordinary differential equations descri bing the fermentative production of streptokinase in a batch reactor w as reduced sequentially to one differential equation by introducing tw o model-based empirical functions. Four key parameters were chosen to study the sensitivity of the model, two parameters reflecting inhibiti on kinetics and two for decay of active cells and streptokinase. Sensi tivities with respect to the inhibition parameters are dominant; pertu rbations in them show significant differences in the changes in sensit ivities with time. These trends, and in particular the start-up profil es, provide useful indications of bioreactor performance.