Experimental Design of Fermentations for Model Identification

A major problem in modelling fermentation processes is the choice of the "best" kinetic model describing the growth of the organism. This is due to the fact that several kinetics can fit the available data from batch fermentations, which is shown for the fermentation of the Basidiomycete Cyathus striatus as an example. However, often not only data about biomass and substrate are reported during a course of fermentation, but also exhaust gas analysis is applied. This paper discusses the use of this additional process information for the determinaton of the "best" kinetic model and the identification of the model parameters. Additionally it is shown that special fed-batch experiments lead to fermentation data allowing for improved model identification.