ADAPTIVE POLE PLACEMENT CONTROL OF A CONTINUOUS FERMENTATION PROCESS

The application of an adaptive pole placement control scheme for the control of real-life biotechnological processes is reported. The problem of simultaneous regulation and tracking of substrate concentration in a continuous fermentation plant is considered in view of recent adaptive control concepts. The process is described by a time-varying non-linear model obtained from mass-balance considerations, where the key process parameter is considered as a time-varying parameter. A discrete-time model is derived. The estimation of this key parameter is carried out using an adaptive filtering scheme. The estimated parameter is used in the explicit design of an adaptive filtering scheme. The estimated parameter is used in the explicit design of an adaptive pole placement algorithm. Good experimental results have been obtained in regulation and tracking, disturbance rejection and transient behaviour, showing the efficiency of this adaptive control scheme.