The scope of the field of biotechnological processes is very wide, covering such processes as fermentations for production of high-valued specialist chemicals (e.g. pharmaceuticals), high-volume production of foods and feeds (e.g. yoghurt, cheese, beer), as well as biological waste treatment, handling solid (composting), liquid (activated sludge) and gaseous wastes (biofilters). Compared to other engineering disciplines, the introduction of modern optimization and control strategies is lagging behind. Two main reasons can be identified. First, the living organisms (or part thereof) that are central to these processes make the mathematical modeling of the processes a difficult task, and, since models are central to the development of control systems, the on-line control problem is also complex. The other difficulty stems from the absence, in most cases, of cheap and reliable instrumentation suited to real-time monitoring. In this book a number of advanced techniques is introduced to deal with these problems. In the first part modern on-line hardware sensors are discussed in detail (FIA, viable biomass measurement, membrane inlet mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, microcalorimetry). In the second part, novel model-based process diagnosis and control techniques are dealt with, including advances in bioprocess modeling and identification, data processing, software sensor design, and on-line control algorithms. The book is directed at engineers, researchers, and students in the field of process control and systems theory as applied to industrial biotechnological processes, as well as at bioengineers who have some background in control engineering and wish to increase their understanding ofhow advanced control theory applies to biological processes.

This second edition of Reese and Van Impe's book has been extensively revised to be compatible in the classroom setting. New features include homework problems with solution aides presented by the student version of the software as well as new case studies and updated existing case studies that agree with modern methods of characterizing soil properties. The thrust of the book is a detailed presentation of methods of analysis for single piles and groups of piles under lateral loading. The method makes use of load-transfer functions that are based heavily on testing results of full-scale, heavily instrumented piles under carefully controlled lateral loading, coupled with the use of soil-structured interaction mechanics. This method is validated by comparing the results from the method of analysis with experimental results from case studies of un-instrumented piles. The book specifically addresses the analysis of piles of varying stiffness installed into soils with a variety of characteristics, accounting for the axial load at the top of the pile and for the rotational restraint of the pile head, possibly nonlinear, offered by the connection to the superstructure. The text provides example designs as well as the design of pile foundations that support an offshore platform. The book also includes references to a rich body of technical material, including citations of hundreds of relevant publications. The user may find the material on pile groups under lateral loading to be particularly helpful. The method begins with the loading at the foundation origin and makes use of nonlinear pile-head functions for the lateral load, the axial load, and the moment, taking pile-soil-pile interaction into account. For two-dimensional cases, the rotation and displacement of the foundation origin is computed to achieve equilibrium, and the resulting pile-head loading may be computed. Results for different loadings can also be readily calculated to seek t