Application of a decomposition approach to optimal temperature control of a batch beer fermentation reactor

An efficient decomposition approach is applied to the optimization of a beer fermentation reactor modeled with a set of strongly nonlinear differential equations. The optimal cooling rate policy is developed to maximize the product concentration within a minimum batch time. A special property of the system is the existence of a state variable inequality constraint. The optimal control problem is solved with the approach in less than 15 seconds CPU-time of a workstation.