Non-Linear Estimation and Control of Mycelial Fermentations

Enhanced process supervision and control is one potential means of obtaining improvements in fermentation operability. However, the inability to obtain on-line measurements of critical variables has hindered process operation improvements. It is estimation techniques that are being developed to overcome this problem on an industrial scale that offer a possible solution to these obstacles. Fixed model based estimation techniques, relying upon an accurate process description, have had limited success due to model structure and parameter determination problems and inherent process variability. This paper reviews on-going research work to address the development of adaptive estimation algorithms which help to overcome these difficulties. Results from some industrial applications are presented.