Process monitoring of an industrial fed-batch fermentation

Market demand places great emphasis in industry on product quality. Consequ ently, process monitoring and control have become important aspects of syst ems engineering. In this article we detail the results of a 2-year study fo cusing on the development of a condition monitoring system for a fed-batch fermentation system operated by Biochemie Gmbh in Austria. We also demonstr ate the suitability and limitations of current state of the art technologie s in this field and suggest novel modifications and configurations to impro ve their suitability for application to a fed-batch fermentation system. (C ) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.