Estimation of the Progress of Streptomyces Clavuligerus Fermentations for Improved On-line Control of Antibiotic Production

Abstract Progress in the optimisation of the production of an antibiotic in aerobic batch fermentations is described. The application of a variant of the Kalman filter to the data indicate that model fit is improved using a time-varying parameter to predict biomass development during the fermentations. Production of the antibiotic is shown to be improved under conditions of limited growth, and the progress in the description of the controlling parameters and factors is discussed.