Generic model control of an Escherichia coli fed-batch culture

Generic model control (GMC), a model-based adaptive control strategy, is applied to a fed-batch high cell density cultivation of Escherichia coli, with biomass production maximization as an objective. A macroscopic model based on the overflow metabolism assumption is used, considering two metabolic pathways (respirative and respiro-fermentative), and consisting of a set of nonlinear differential equations. A linear Kalman filter is designed to reconstruct the assumed unmeasured variables required to calculate the control law. Since the bioprocess model may present uncertainties, the robustness of the approach is tested through a set of Monte-Carlo simulations.