Online Application‐Oriented Optimal Scheduling for 2‐keto‐l‐gulonic Acid Production

Abstract

An optimal scheduling approach for the 2‐keto‐L‐gulonic acid (2‐KGA) fermentation process is proposed to improve allocation of L‐sorbose resources with the aim of profit maximization in a multi‐bioreactor workshop. The empirical operation in 2‐KGA cultivation under study is to assign the same quantity of L‐sorbose to each batch without taking batch‐to‐batch variations into account, while the optimal scheduling approach presented in this paper will determine L‐sorbose feeding according to the evaluation of the profit‐making ability of the individual batch. Each 2‐KGA batch is classified online according to the prediction of the profit function, so that each batch is assigned into different profit‐making categories. Pseudo‐online scheduling is implemented with the data of industrial 2‐KGA cultivations. A total profit increase of 6–7 % is found to be achievable for the workshop in comparison with the empirical operation.