Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.52, No.4, 1645-1655, 2013
Analysis of Hopf Points for a Zymomonas mobilis Continuous Fermentation Process Producing Ethanol
Zymomonas mobilis is one of the most promising industrial microorganisms for industrial ethanol production. However, biomass, product and substrate oscillation behaviors have been observed under certain operating conditions in both experiments and numerical simulations of continuous fermentations involving this organism. This article analyzed oscillation behavior during fermentation based on Hopf bifurcation analysis, in which the Hopf singularity point and limit cycles were introduced. All Hopf points in the operating parameter values panel were simultaneously located and identified for given sets of operating conditions. Calculation of the distribution of Hopf points contributed to enhancing the stability of the fermentation process, maintaining high product quality, and providing insights into system dynamics.