ESTIMATION OF BIOPROCESS VARIABLES FROM MONASCUS RUBER CULTURES BY MEANS OF STOICHIOMETRIC MODELS

Two stoichiometric black-box models were compared in glucose and ethan ol batch cultures of Monascus ruber to estimate some bioprocess variab les. Although mass balance models are usually applied to a steady-stat e process, their adaptation to batch processes provided a good correla tion between experimental and predicted values of biomass and monosodi um glutamate for two different ethanol cultures. In contrast, the empi rical stoichiometric model requires more analytical information and th e estimation of variables and poores correlations were obtained for th e joint estimation of biomass production and monosodium glutamate cons umption Close correlation between experimental and predicted data was found for the joint estimation of biomass and malate with this model.