MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR GROWTH AND PRODUCTION OF SINGLE PELLETS AND PELLET POPULATIONS

摘要

To understand the complex behaviour of fermentations with pellet-forming microorganisms, such as fungi or actinomycetes, mathematical models are proposed. The focus is put on a morphological description of the reactor broth. It is shown, how a model of growth and production of a single pellet can be used to optimize a process. Furthermore, a population balance is deduced to describe the time evolution of the pellet size distribution in the presence of shear forces. This model can form a basis on which correlations between engineering variables, such as mass transfer coefficients, and information of the biophase can be built up.