Sustainable Plantwide Optimizing Control for an Acrylic Acid Process.

This paper presents a sustainable control strategy from a plantwide control (PWC) perspective. The proposed strategy is subjected to testing within an operational environment of an acrylic acid plant. To integrate sustainability tools into the plantwide optimizing control (PWOC) formulation, the present proposal suggests the utilization of green chemistry principles.

l-Threonine production from whey and fish hydrolysate by .

In this work production of l-threonine by has been studied using a mixture of alternative low-cost substrates, which are recognized to be a major pollution problem. Whey was used as the primary carbon source, whereas Red Tilapia ( sp.) viscera hydrolysates constituted the nitrogen source.

Stochastic Multilayer Optimization for an Acrylic Acid Reactor.

In this paper, a multilayer stochastic optimization approach is implemented to solve a dynamic optimization problem under uncertainties for an acrylic acid reactor. The proposed methodology handles different sources of uncertainties (internal, external, process), being a novel approach to obtain more realistic solutions in the context of process optimization. A comparison against deterministic dynamic optimization, single-layer stochastic optimization, and typical PI control loops is carried out.

TCA Cycle and Its Relationship with Clavulanic Acid Production: A Further Interpretation by Using a Reduced Genome-Scale Metabolic Model of .

() has been widely studied for its ability to produce clavulanic acid (CA), a potent inhibitor of β-lactamase enzymes. In this study, cultivated in 2D rocking bioreactor in fed-batch operation produced CA at comparable rates to those observed in stirred tank bioreactors. A reduced model of metabolism was constructed by using a bottom-up approach and validated using experimental data.

A Genome-Scale Insight into the Effect of Shear Stress During the Fed-Batch Production of Clavulanic Acid by .

is a filamentous Gram-positive bacterial producer of the β-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid. Antibiotics biosynthesis in the genus is usually triggered by nutritional and environmental perturbations. In this work, a new genome scale metabolic network of was reconstructed and used to study the experimentally observed effect of oxygen and phosphate concentrations on clavulanic acid biosynthesis under high and low shear stress.

Pareto domain: an invaluable source of process information.

Due to the highly competitive market and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, it is paramount to operate chemical processes at their optimal point. In a typical process, there are usually many process variables (decision variables) that need to be selected in order to achieve a set of optimal objectives for which the process will be considered to operate optimally. Because some of the objectives are often contradictory, Multi-objective optimization (MOO) can be used to find a suitable trade-off among all objectives that will satisfy the decision maker.

Application of process system engineering tools to the fed-batch production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) from a vinasses-molasses Mixture.

Fed-batch production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) copolymer using vinasses-molasses mixture is carried out in this work by implementing different process systems engineering tools. Two fed-batch strategies are tested experimentally at 5 L scale, considering only offline information: (1) offline optimizing control and (2) exponential feeding. Application of these strategies showed that different feeding profiles result in different dynamic behaviour, influencing both, yield and biopolymer properties.

Metabolic adaptation of two in silico mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during infection.

Background: Up to date, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains as the worst intracellular killer pathogen. To establish infection, inside the granuloma, Mtb reprograms its metabolism to support both growth and survival, keeping a balance between catabolism, anabolism and energy supply. Mtb knockouts with the faculty of being essential on a wide range of nutritional conditions are deemed as target candidates for tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

First principle-based models in plant suspension cell cultures: a review.

In this work, the development and application of published models for describing the behavior of plant cell cultures is reviewed. The structure of each type of model is analyzed and the new tendencies for the modeling of biotechnological processes that can be applied in plant cell cultures are presented. This review is a tool for clarifying the main features that characterize each type of model in the field of plant cell cultures and can be used as a support on the selection of the more suitable model type, taking into account the purpose of specific research.

Structured model and parameter estimation in plant cell cultures of Thevetia peruviana.

In this work, a mechanistic model for predicting the dynamic behavior of extracellular and intracellular nutrients, biomass production, and the main metabolites involved in the central carbon metabolism in plant cell cultures of Thevetia peruviana is presented. The proposed model is the first mechanistic model implemented for plant cell cultures of this species, and includes 28 metabolites, 33 metabolic reactions, and 61 parameters. Given the over-parametrization of the model, its nonlinear nature and the strong correlation among the effects of the parameters, a parameter estimation routine based on identifiability analysis was implemented.

Applying a Geospatial Visualization Based on USSD Messages to Real Time Identification of Epidemiological Risk Areas in Developing Countries: A Case of Study of Paraguay.

The identification of epidemiological risk areas is one of the major problems in public health. Information management strategies are needed to facilitate prevention and control of disease in the affected areas. This paper presents a model to optimize geographical data collection of suspected or confirmed disease occurrences using the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) mobile technology, considering its wide adoption even in developing countries such as Paraguay.

Flux balance analysis in the production of clavulanic acid by Streptomyces clavuligerus.

In this work, in silico flux balance analysis is used for predicting the metabolic behavior of Streptomyces clavuligerus during clavulanic acid production. To choose the best objective function for use in the analysis, three different optimization problems are evaluated inside the flux balance analysis formulation: (i) maximization of the specific growth rate, (ii) maximization of the ATP yield, and (iii) maximization of clavulanic acid production. Maximization of ATP yield showed the best predictions for the cellular behavior.

Model-based identifiable parameter determination applied to a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process model for bio-ethanol production.

In this work, a methodology for the model-based identifiable parameter determination (MBIPD) is presented. This systematic approach is proposed to be used for structure and parameter identification of nonlinear models of biological reaction networks. Usually, this kind of problems are over-parameterized with large correlations between parameters.

Modeling and parameter identification of the simultaneous saccharification-fermentation process for ethanol production.

Despite many environmental advantages of using alcohol as a fuel, there are still serious questions about its economical feasibility when compared with oil-based fuels. The bioethanol industry needs to be more competitive, and therefore, all stages of its production process must be simple, inexpensive, efficient, and "easy" to control. In recent years, there have been significant improvements in process design, such as in the purification technologies for ethanol dehydration (molecular sieves, pressure swing adsorption, pervaporation, etc.