Modelling and optimal control of an electro-fermentation process within a batch culture

Ihab I. Haidar (1, 2) , Elie Desmond-Le Quéméner (3) , Jean-Pierre Barbot (2, 4) , Jérôme Harmand (3) , Alain Rapaport (5)

1 QUARTZ - Laboratoire QUARTZ
2 ENSEA - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Electronique et de ses Applications
3 LBE - Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement [Narbonne]
4 LS2N - Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes
5 MISTEA - Mathématiques, Informatique et STatistique pour l'Environnement et l'Agronomie

Electro-fermentation is a novel process that consists of electrochemically controlling microbial fermentative metabolism with electrodes. In such process the electrodes act either as electron sinks or sources modifying the fermentation balance of a microbial fermentative metabolism and providing new options for the control of microbial activity. In this paper we consider a fermentative microorganism in a batch culture and we suppose that this microorganism has two metabolic pathways, each one gives rise to a corresponding fermentation product. We propose a model describing the transition between the two metabolic behaviors in response to different electrode potentials. Based on this model we study how to control the microbial ecosystem in order to maximize the production of one of the rising fermentation products.

Domaines: Optimisation et contrôle [math.OC]; Biodiversité et Ecologie

Ihab I. Haidar, Elie Desmond-Le Quéméner, Jean-Pierre Barbot, Jérôme Harmand, Alain Rapaport. Modelling and optimal control of an electro-fermentation process within a batch culture. 2021. ⟨hal-03404185⟩