Simple substrate feeding rate control mechanism for optimizing the steady state productivity of a class of continuous fermentation processes

This paper considers the problem of optimizing the productivity of a class of continuous fermentation processes which is described by an unstructured fermentation process model. By applying the first principle known by biotechnologists, for a prefixed dilution rate, we develop a simple substrate feeding rate control mechanism for optimizing the steady state productivity without knowing some of the process' parameters. Furthermore, we also show that this simple control law is robust against measurement noise and the variation of process' parameters.