ON MODELING, MONITORING AND CONTROL OF FIXED-BED BIOREACTORS

This paper deals with the dynamical modelling, the control and the sta te observability analysis of distributed parameter fixed bed reactors. The first objective is to propose control algorithms for fixed bed bi oreactors which are based on the nonlinear distributed parameter model of the process. The central question we address in this part of the p aper is how to extend the application of adaptive linearizing control schemes to nonlinear distributed parameter bioprocesses. A second obje ctive of this paper is to consider state observation: we analyze the i nfluence of the position of the ''internal'' sensor(s) on the observab ility in order to determine the best observability possible in practic e. The criterion is the condition number of the observability matrix o f the linearized tangent model of the discretized model of the process . It is shown that there is an optimal sensor location for which the c ondition number is minimized. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.