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 book is the outgrowth of the COMETT II Course on Advanced Instru mentation, Data Interpretation, and Control of Biotechnological Processes organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Universiteit Gent, and held at Gent, Belgium, October 1994. The editors of the present volume were very fortunate to find all invited speakers prepared to write state-of-the-art expositions based on their lec tures. Special thanks are due to all of them. The result is an account of recent advances in instrumentation, data interpretation, and model based op timization and control of bioprocesses. For anyone interested in this emerg ing field, this text is of value and provides comprehensive reviews as well as new and important trends and directions for the future, motivated and illustrated by a wealth of applications. The typesetting of all this material represented a tremendous amount of work. I am most grateful to my wife, Myriam Uyttendaele, and to Kurt Gheys, who did most of the proof-reading. Their efforts have increased a lot the uniformity in style and presentation of the different manuscripts. Many thanks also to the co-editors, for their continued support. Kluwer Academic Publishers is gratefully acknowledged for publishing this book, thus contributing to the transfer of the latest research results into large scale industrial applications."