Modelling of a nonlinear switching system in microbial continuous culture and its parameter optimization via sensitivity functions

To describe the continuous bioconversion of glycerol to 1, 3-propanediol concerning the intracellular and extracellular dynamics and the transports across cell membrane, we establish a nonlinear switching system and discuss its some basic properties. For this over parameterized dynamical system, we propose a two-phase method to determine its parameters. The first phase carries out parametric sensitivity analysis for the purpose of reducing the number of the unknown parameters and the second phase covers the optimization of those parameters with higher sensitivity index. Numerical calculations on the basis of multi-groups experiments indicate that the proposed switching system is appropriate and the developed methods are valid.