Advanced Expanded Microbial Kinetics (EMK) Model for Ethanol Production from Mixed Cassava and Fruit Wastes

Bioprocesses are often highly nonlinear due to process variability and complexity of biological systems. In this study, a series of batch experimental study was conducted on ethanol production using combined cassava and rejected mango fruits as a fermentation feedstock. The effects of pH and aeration rate were studied in the experiments. An advanced EMK model was developed to mathematically represent the simultaneous effects of pH and aeration rate on microbial kinetics for a highly nonlinear fermentation. The advantage of this proposed model is that it requires only small number of experimental runs to obtain a high-order order prediction response with an improved accuracy. The results showed that the model can fit the experimental data well within the given ranges of pH and aeration rate used in the study.