Estimation of parameters and state variables in an alcoholic fermentation process in a fed-batch bioreactor

Abstract

Energy consumption in the world is based on two types of sources: fossil fuels and renewable energy. In this case, bioethanol presents itself as an alternative resource to fossil fuels, whose production can occur through specific processes called alcoholic fermentation. In parallel, the growing demand for energy has motivated scientists to develop even more efficient systems and technologies. In this work, mathematical modeling and simulation was performed to represent the kinetics of alcoholic fermentation in a fed-batch bioreactor. The modeling was developed taking into account the microbial inhibition caused by the presence of excess substrate and product through the Tosetto and Hoppe-Hansford models. In the simulation, Bayesian statistics was used as a tool to estimate the kinetic parameters and the state variables of the bioprocess. The estimates were obtained through the use of a particle filter proposed by Liu and West, with 500 particles and experimental measurements from the literature, whose approach presented 99% accuracy and proved to be effective for describing alcoholic fermentation.

Keywords

• particle filter
• bioreactor
• kinetic parameters
• alcoholic fermentation
• mathematical modeling