Process Modeling and Control

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Fermentation Processes

Our research activities in microbial fermentation are focused on bacterial and yeast fermenters commonly used in the pharmaceutical and environmental industries.

Experimental Facilities

A yeast fermentation system located in the UMass Department of Chemical Engineering (Henson lab) can be used to develop modeling and control strategies for batch, fed-batch and continuous operation using on-line measurement of off-gas and media compositions.

Current Projects

Optimization and Control of Fed-Batch Yeast Fermenters
PI: Michael Henson
Sponsors: University of Massachusetts
Student: Jared Hjersted
The objective of this project is to utilize mechanistic cellular models as the basis for determining optimal operating policies for fed-batch yeast fermenters.

Recent Projects

Professor Doyle (UCSB) recently graduated two PhD students who worked on projects in the area of fermentation control (Dr. Kapil Gadkar and Dr. Krishna Mahadevan). Those projects involved the development of new methods for modeling fermentation processes (dynamic flux balance analysis) as well as nonlinear model-based control schemes for on-line operation. Prof. Doyle is in the process of developing a bacterial fermentation facility at UCSB.

Selected Publications

K. G. Gadkar, F. J. Doyle, J. S. Edwards, et al., "Estimating Optimal Profiles of Genetic Alterations Using Constraint-Based Models," Biotecnol. Bioeng., 89, 243-251, 2005.

K. G. Gadkar, F. J. Doyle, T. J. Crowley, J. D. Varner, "Cybernetic Model Predictive Control of a Continuous Bioreactor with Cell Recycle," Biotechnol. Prog., 19, 1487-97, 2003.

M. A. Henson, “Dynamic Modeling of Microbial Cell Populations,” Curr. Opin. Biotechnol., 14, 460-467, 2003.

M. A. Henson, “Cell Population Modeling of Autonomously Oscillating Yeast Cultures,” Comput. Chem. Eng., 29, 645-661, 2005.

R. Mahadevan, F. J. Doyle, "On-Line Optimization of Recombinant Product in a Fed-Batch Bioreactor," Biotechnol. Prog., 19, 639-646, 2003.

R. Mahadevan, J. S. Edwards, F. J. Doyle, "Dynamic Flux Balance Analysis of Diauxic Growth in Escherichia coli," Biophys. J., 83, 1331-1340, 2002.

P. Mhaskar, M. A. Henson and M. A. Hjortso, “Cell Population Modeling and Parameter Estimation of Continuous Cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Biotech. Progr., 18, 1010-1026, 2002.

Y. Zhang, M. A. Henson and Y. Kevrekidis, “Nonlinear Model Reduction for Dynamic Analysis of Cell Population Models,” Chem. Eng. Sci., 58, 429-445, 2003.