Computer simulation of the biomass production rate of cyclic fed batch continuous culture

The biomass productivity of cyclically operated variable volume fermenters has been investigated as a function of the initial volume and the feed flow rate. The results of computer simulations show that the productivity-dilution rate curves are similar to those for a constant volume chemostat, which represents a limiting case for the cyclic operation. Both cyclic fed batch and fed batch plus batch operation have been studied for Monod and substrate inhibition kinetics. The results obtained for variable volume operation can be used to estimate the loss in productivity when a chemostat inadvertently undergoes volume fluctuations.