Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

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Chemical Engineering Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cej

Model-based control of a fedbatch biodegradation process

by the control Lyapunov function approach
a,c

U. Banos-Rodrguez
, O.J. Santos-Snchez b , R.I. Beltrn-Hernndez a , G.A. Vzquez-Rodrguez a,
a

Centro de Investigaciones Qumicas, Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo km. 4.5, 42184 Mineral de la Reforma, Hgo., Mexico
Centro de Investigacin en Tecnologas de Informacin y Sistemas, Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo km. 4.5, 42184 Mineral de la Reforma,
Hgo., Mexico
c
Universidad Politcnica de Pachuca, Ex-Hacienda de Santa Brbara, Carretera Pachuca-Cd. Sahagn km. 20, C.P. 43830, Zempoala, Hgo. Mexico
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 13 October 2011
Received in revised form 22 February 2012
Accepted 22 February 2012
Keywords:
Phenol
Inhibition kinetics
Modeling
Suboptimal control
Control Lyapunov function
Hill-climbing algorithm

a b s t r a c t
A strategy based on a kinetic model was developed to control a fedbatch process for phenol degradation by means of the feeding pattern. Biodegradation of phenol by acclimated activated sludge was
modeled by the Haldane equation. This model was considered as the control system and the feeding ow (Q) to the reactor as the input. The Control Lyapunov Function (CLF) approach was used to
synthesize the controller, which was applied in open loop. A feeding strategy and a fedbatch cycle,
consisting of 4 h of lling, 6 h of aeration, 0.58 h of settling and 0.03 h of drawing, were obtained
by simulation. The kinetic model and the control strategy were validated experimentally in a fedbatch cycle, and the performance of the latter was compared with that of a non-controlled cycle. The
model allowed to predict adequately both the phenol and the biomass concentrations during the culture. The control of the process resulted in a lower hydraulic retention time (21.28 h) than that of
the non-controlled cycle (47.62 h). Higher applied and phenol mass loads (1.13 g phenol L1 d1 and
4.82 g phenol g1 TSS d1 , respectively) could also be obtained in the controlled cycle. Further, the phenol mass load was higher than that reported in other processes even though any online monitoring
was carried out. This is the rst reported use of the CLF approach to biodegradation processes, and it is
our view that it could be applied to other phenolic wastewater treatment systems lacking of real-time
monitoring.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Phenol is a naturally and industrially derived pollutant commonly found in industrial and domestic wastewater [1]. This
compound can be removed biologically from liquid streams
because there are numerous and widespread microorganisms that
can break it down. Indeed, aerobic prokaryotic and eukaryotic
microorganisms [1], as well as mixed cultures (i.e., activated sludge
[2]), are capable to oxidize phenol.
Nevertheless, even the microorganisms able of using phenol
as a substrate can only deal with relatively low concentrations of
this compound (of about 0.10 g L1 [3]) due to its cell membrane
disrupting effect [1]. So, the Haldane inhibition model (Eq. (1)) is
frequently used to describe the relationship between the specic

Corresponding author. Present address: NSERC Industrial Chair in Drinking

Water, cole Polytechnique de Montral, C.P. 6079 succ. Centre Ville, Montral QC,
Canada H3C 3A7. Tel.: +1 514 340 4711x2334; fax: +1 514 340 5918.
E-mail addresses: gabriela.vazquez@polymtl.ca, g.a.vazquezr@gmail.com
(G.A. Vzquez-Rodrguez).
1385-8947/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cej.2012.02.068

microbial growth rate () and the phenol concentration (S) in batch,
fedbatch and continuous operating modes [2].
=

max S
KS + S +

S2
Ki

(1)

max , KS and Ki are constant parameters corresponding to the maximum specic growth rate, the half-saturation constant and the
Haldane-inhibition constant, respectively.
Fedbatch reactors provide dynamic conditions of operation specially well-suited for the biodegradation of inhibitory compounds
as phenol. In these reactors the inuent is fed to the treatment unit
following a specic pattern. Since the efuent is not drawn off until
the reactor is full or later, toxic compounds are diluted in the total
volume of the aeration tank, allowing their inhibitory effect to be
reduced [4]. For control purposes, the control signal (e.g., the feeding ow of toxic inuent to the reactor) has to be minimized to
diminish the inhibition of the biomass but without compromising
the performance of the process (i.e., the daily pollution load to the
system).

U. Ba
nos-Rodrguez et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

Nomenclature
Ki
KS
Q
S
T
V
X
Y
V (x)
VB (x)

dV (x)
dt
()

x
min {.}
u
u

dVB (x)
dt





Haldane-inhibition constant (g L1 )
half-saturation constant (g L1 )
feeding ow rate to the reactor (L h1 )
phenol concentration (g L1 )
time (h)
volume of medium in the reactor (L)
biomass concentration (g L1 )
observed growth yield (g g1 )
Control Lyapunov Function
Bellman function
derivative of the CLF along the trajectories of the
system (*)
state of the control system
minimum of all control functions u
optimal control

(u=u )

derivative of the Bellman equation when the

control is optimal
performance index

Greek symbols
(x)
penalty function of the state

specic growth rate (h1 )
max
maximum specic growth rate (h1 )
Subscript
0
initial value
f
nal value
Superscript
value at the entry of the reactor
in

257

CLF approach for synthesizing the controller. The kinetic model and
the control strategy were validated experimentally in a fedbatch
process of phenol biodegradation. A reference culture was also carried out to compare its performance against that of the controlled
process.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Organisms and chemicals
Samples of activated sludge were obtained from the aeration
tank of a plant treating municipal wastewater (Pachuca, Mexico).
Phenol was supplied by SigmaAldrich (Germany); all other chemicals were purchased from J.T. Baker (U.S.A.).
2.2. Acclimation of activated sludge Reference fedbatch cycle
The acclimation of activated sludge to phenol was carried out by
cycles with the following sequence of operations: feeding, aeration,
settling and drawing. Each day, 1 L of mineral medium (Section 2.6)
supplied with a variable volume of concentrated phenol solution
(20 g L1 ) was added to 1 L of activated sludge. After 23 h of aeration
and agitation and 0.58 h of settling, the supernatant was drained in
0.03 h. Following 0.36 h of idle time, fresh medium was fed (0.03 h).
This operation mode was considered the reference cycle; its overall duration was not optimized and was kept at 24 h. Acclimation
of activated sludge was accomplished in nine weeks by increasing
the initial phenol concentration in the medium (S0 ) from 0.005 to
0.45 g L1 using 0.05 g L1 steps on a weekly basis. This S0 value
(0.45 g L1 ) and a total suspended solids (TSS) concentration in the
reactor of 46 g L1 were maintained afterwards, in order to provide a biomass with similar characteristics for the assays. At least
once a week, the exhaustion of phenol was veried at the end of the
cycle. The phenol concentration in the efuent was always lower
than 2 104 g L1 .
2.3. Batch cultures

Modeling and control of fedbatch reactors represent challenging

areas of research by two well-known factors. First, the biological
processes exhibit large nonlinearities, strongly coupled variables
and parameter uncertainties [5]. This can lead to large discrepancies between the model predictions and the experimental data
when these are originated from batch runs and then used for modeling fedbatch cultures [6]. Second, the lack of reliable online sensors
limits the real-time monitoring of key variables such as the concentration of substrate [5]. Thus, several strategies having as control
task the regulation of the biomass growth rate by means of the
feeding pattern, rather than the substrate concentration itself, have
been proposed. For instance, in a previous work [7], the dynamic
behavior of fedbatch processes with Haldane kinetics was investigated and some conditions for global stability and performance
improvement were presented. A stabilizing control law based on a
partial state feedback was presented too. The goal of this open-loop
control strategy was keeping the growth rate close to its maximal
value by providing an exponential feeding pattern. However, the
control efciency was not validated experimentally.
Nonlinear systems can be successfully controlled by using the
Control Lyapunov Functions (CLF) [8,9]. The main advantage of this
approach is that the Bellman equation does not need to be solved
to minimize the control signal and to stabilize the process. Until
now, the CLF have not been used for controlling biodegradation
processes.
The purpose of this work was to enhance the performance of a
fedbatch process of phenol degradation by means of the control of
the feeding pattern. The control strategy was based on the kinetic
modeling of the inhibition of activated sludge by phenol and on the

Four shake-ask cultures were conducted at different S0

(0.200.60 g L1 ) and at the same initial biomass concentration (X0 ,
0.030.04 g protein L1 ) in order to estimate the Haldane parameters of the acclimated cultures. For this, 1-L glass bafed Erlenmeyer
asks containing 0.4 L of mineral medium and variable volumes
of a concentrated phenol solution (20 g L1 ) were inoculated with
acclimated activated sludge. The asks were incubated and maintained under agitation (120 rpm) over a thermostated water bath
(25 1 C). During the cultures, samples were obtained periodically
to assess the phenol and biomass concentrations.
2.4. Fedbatch reactor system
The bioreactor was a glass vessel of 2-L working volume with
a water jacket to control the operating temperature at 25 1 C
(Fig. 1). It was equipped with a magnetic stirrer and a pump providing about 3.2 L min1 of air through a diffuser. The system was
conducted in fedbatch mode with the same sequence of operations than in the reference cycle (e.g., feeding, aeration, settling
and drawing). First, the medium feeding was started and simultaneously both the aeration and agitation of the culture were enabled.
After the feeding phase, the biomass was maintained under aeration and agitation. At the end of this phase, the sludge was allowed
to settle. Finally, the supernatant was withdrawn from the reactor. Feeding and drawing were performed by peristaltic pumps
(Masterex 77200-50) congured in remote mode.
For the operation of the reactor, a Programmer Logic Controller
(PLC; Tlmchanique-Schneider SR3B261BD) was employed. The

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U. Ba
nos-Rodrguez et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

Fig. 1. Schematic setup of the fedbatch reactor system. 1: Programmer logic controller (PLC); 2: air pump; 3: feed tank; 4: controlled feeding pump; 5: magnet bar; 6:
magnetic stirrer; 7: air diffuser; 8: reactor vessel; 9: efuent tank; 10: sampling port; 11: controlled drawing pump; 12: monitoring computer. The discontinuous lines
represent control signals.

sequence of operations described above was programmed by

timers with delay to connection; e.g., following the digital signal
sent by the PLC, the rst timer enabled the feeding into the reactor
by activating the feeding pump through a specic period. A Ladder
language software (Zelio Soft 4.3; Tlmchanique-Schneider) was
used for programming the PLC. The control law was implemented
by using both a timed-loop tool in Lab View 7 Express and a Matlab Script function storing the values of the control law in a vector.
These values were converted to the corresponding volt values of
the pump by a calibration curve of the actuator. The timed loop
gave the appropriate time step to send the control signal value to
an analog channel of the card, corresponding to each simulation
time instant.

2.5. Fedbatch cultures

The aforementioned reactor system was used for the cultures
carried out in fedbatch mode. It was seeded with a sample of
acclimated activated sludge, which was previously centrifuged and
washed twice with phenol-free mineral medium. The biomass was
resuspended in 1 L of phenol-free mineral medium. The feeding
ow (Sin = 1 g L1 of phenol) was supplied with no output ow until
the working volume of the reactor (2 L) was reached. During the
cultures, samples were taken at different times to assess the phenol and biomass concentrations (in duplicate). The samples were
rst centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 10 min and the supernatants were
frozen until analysis. After centrifugation, the precipitated biomass
was recovered for determining the protein content.

2.7. Analytical methods

Phenol concentration was determined by the 4aminoantipyrine method, which is fully described elsewhere
[2]. This method has a detection threshold limit of 7 105 g L1
and a variation coefcient of 1.06% of the measured values (n = 9).
Biomass concentration was measured as protein by the Lowry
method [10] and gravimetrically as total suspended solids (TSS) by
drying 10 mL samples for 24 h at 105 C.
2.8. Mathematical modeling and parameter estimation
The Haldane substrate-inhibition model (Eq. (1)) was used to
describe the specic cell growth rate (). A dynamic model (Eqs.
(2)(4)) including the feeding ow (Q) as input to the reactor was
derived from mass-balance considerations:
X = X

Q
X
V

(2)


Q
S = X + (S in S)
Y
V

(3)

V = Q

(4)

/ 0), Y
where V is the volume of the medium in the reactor (V(t0 ) =
is the observed growth yield (assumed as constant) and Sin is the
phenol concentration in the feeding medium.
The parameters were estimated by using the hill-climbing
method [11]. This algorithm is fully explained in Appendix A.
2.9. Implementation of the controller

2.6. Mineral medium

Both fedbatch and batch cultures were carried out with a
medium having the following composition (mg L1 ): K2 HPO4 (404),
KH2 PO4 (220), (NH4 )2 SO4 (50), MgSO4 7H2 O (10), CaCl2 2H2 O
(1.85), MnCl2 4H2 O (1.5), FeCl3 6H2 O (0.3). These concentrations
were balanced with a S0 of 0.20 g L1 ; when different phenol
concentrations were used, the medium composition was proportionally modied.

The controller was simulated in closed loop in SimulinkMatlab

by using the fourth order Runge-Kutta method with a xed stepsize of 0.001. After obtaining the controller signal (in units of ow,
u = Q), it was shifted to a voltage signal compatible with the actuator (a peristaltic pump) by means of a data acquisition board
(National Instruments NI PCI-MIO-16XE-50). Due to the lack of
online sensors, the LabView 7.1 software was programmed to send
this control signal to the actuator, and a timed loop structure was

U. Ba
nos-Rodrguez et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

259

Fig. 2. Phenol consumption () and biomass growth () in a reference fedbatch

cycle.

used to guarantee that the signal of control was applied at the

correct instant of time.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Acclimation of activated sludge reference fedbatch cycle
The acclimation of activated sludge allowed a stable degradingphenol culture and a high average phenol removal (>99.9%) to be
obtained. Fig. 2 presents the typical biomass and phenol courses of
the reference cycle.
The mean applied phenol load to the reactor was
0.45 g phenol L1 d1 , and the mean phenol mass load was
0.09 g phenol g1 TSS d1 . As the reference cycle was not optimized
to minimize its duration, these load values are lower than those
reported usually. For instance, a load of 0.75 g phenol L1 d1
was applied to an aerobic granular SBR treating phenol in saline
wastewater [12]. In xed biomass processes the applied phenol load can be greater; for a packed-bed bioreactor, a load of
2.68 g phenol L1 d1 was reported [13]. Although the microbial
composition of the sludge was not analyzed in this study, Valivorax
paradoxus was found as the dominant bacterial strain in activated
sludge acclimated to phenol in a continuous system (with an
applied load of 0.4 g phenol L1 d1 and characterized by a low
residual phenol concentration) [14]. After a batch enrichment
(subject to higher phenol concentrations, as in the present study),
the dominant strains in the acclimated sludge were Pseudomonas
putida and Acinetobacter lwofi [14].
3.2. Modeling of the phenol biodegradation in batch cultures
Four batch runs were conducted in shake asks in order to determine the Haldane parameters. Initial phenol concentrations (S0 )
were set in the range from 0.20 to 0.60 g L1 , and the phenol consumption was followed during 12 h. The results are presented in
Fig. 3 in terms of percent biodegradation of phenol. No lag phases
were observed in any culture, due to the phenol concentration used
for the activated sludge acclimation (0.45 g L1 ). S0 inuenced the
biodegradation kinetics since phenol exhaustion needed different
periods to be accomplished (2 and 10 h for the lowest and the highest S0 , respectively).
The kinetic parameters of the Haldane model determined by
the hill-climbing method are presented in Table 1 along with a
summary of values reported in other studies. The max value is

Fig. 3. Phenol consumption in batch cultures at different S0 (g L1 ):. () 0.20; ()

0.29; () 0.40; () 0.60.

higher than the upper limit of the range of values reported for
phenol-degrading mixed cultures [1922]. Actually, this value is
closer to those exhibited by axenic cultures as Cupriavidus taiwanensis [16] and Pseudomonas putida [17], which suggests the
absence of microbial competition for phenol [22]. The value found
for Ki is in the wide range of values reported for mixed cultures,
namely 0.0721.199 g L1 [1922]. This value indicates that the
inhibition effect is observed rather at high phenol concentrations.
Such a resistance to substrate inhibition is probably due to the
previous acclimation of the activated sludge. It has been reported
that acclimated bacteria can develop mechanisms to counteract
the increased uidity of the membrane caused by phenol [1]. In
Pseudomonas putida, the resistance mechanism consists in the isomerization of cis-unsaturated fatty acids to the trans-conguration,
leading to more rigid cell membranes [1]. The acclimated sludge
showed a low afnity for phenol, as its KS value was higher
than the superior limit of the range of values signaled for mixed
cultures (0.0050.266 g L1 [1922]). Besides the Haldane parameters, the hill-climbing algorithm found Y = 0.8 g protein g1 phenol.
This parameter cannot be compared with the bibliography values
because they are commonly expressed in terms of g of TSS, not of
protein, per g of phenol.
Simulations of the batch runs were made by using the dynamical
model given by Eqs. (1)(4) and the aforementioned parameters, and by setting Q = 0 for this mode of culture. Results are
given in Fig. 4. At least for the range of S0 that has been studied (0.200.60 g L1 ), the model exhibited an adequate estimation
ability. This was evidenced by Pearson coefcients (R2 ) being comprised between 0.96 and 0.99.
3.3. Control strategy
The model presented in Eqs. (1)(4) was considered the control
system, taking as input the feeding ow (Q) to the reactor. The state
of the system was described by the following variables: volume of
medium in the reactor (V), phenol concentration (S) and biomass
content (X). To compensate the lack of online measurements of the
two later variables, a state feedback controller was synthesized by
using a CLF [8,9,23]. However, it was applied in open loop by obtaining the signal of control from a simulation and considering this
signal as the ow prole.

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U. Ba
nos-Rodrguez et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

Table 1
Summary of Haldane kinetic parameters obtained for phenol biodegradation.
Microorganism/culture

Haldane-model constants

Bacillus brevis
Cupriavidus taiwanensis
P. putida ATCC 17484
Ralstonia eutropha
Activated sludge
Activated sludge
Mixed culture
Activated sludge
Activated sludge

Ref.

max (h1 )

Ks (g L1 )

Ki (g L1 )

0.0260.078
0.50
0.534
0.410
0.119
0.1310.363
0.308
0.438
0.600

0.0020.029
0.061
<0.001
0.002
0.011
0.0050.266
0.045
0.029
0.385

0.8682.434
0.280
0.470
0.350
0.251
0.1421.199
0.525
0.072
0.700

The control system (Eqs. (1)(4)) is nonlinear and afne. The

T

state x = X S V
was dened and the input was set as u = Q.
Phenol concentration was controlled (S 0) by using the input u.
The control system was rewritten as follows:
x = f0 (x) + f1 (x)u

(5)

where V (x) denotes the gradient of the scalar function V (x) and
() denotes the inner product. Now, consider the Bellman equation
[24].

dVB (x) 
 + (x, u ) = 0
dt
(u=u )

(8)

where VB (x) is the Bellman functional equation and u is the optimal

control when the following performance index is considered:

where


X
Y

f0 (x) = X

[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
This study

T

f1 (x) =


VX

S in S
V

T


1

(6)

An equilibrium point of the control system (Eqs. (1)(4)) is x =

T

Xf 0 Vf , where Xf and Vf are constants, with u = 0. Without

loss of generality, the system (Eq. (5)) can be rewritten as a system
which the zero equilibrium is x . The system was then transferred
to the equilibrium point x . By using the CLF approach, a candidate
of Lyapunov function V (x) was proposed, which is positive-denite
and radially unbounded. V (x) was derived along the trajectories of
the system (Eq. (5)), and the following equation was obtained:

dV (x) 
 = V (x) f0 (x) + V (x) f1 (x)u
dt (5)

(7)

J=

(x, u)dt
0

where the function (x, u) is positive-denite. As for nonlinear systems it is very difcult to construct or to propose a Bellman function
VB (x) satisfying the Eq. (8), a candidate Lyapunov function V (x) for
the system was proposed (Eq. (7)). With this approximation for
the Bellman function, a control u that satises the Eq. (9) was
investigated.

min
u

dV (x) 
 + (x)
dt (5)

(9)

In a previous work [23], a suboptimal controller for an electromechanical system was presented, where the function (.)
depends on both the state and the controller. For simplicity, in this
work (x) is proposed only as a state function. The function (x)
penalizes the state variables in order to obtain a fast or a slow convergence to the state x . Simulation results showed that the control
of the biomass X is very complex, but the variable S can be controlled in such a way that S 0 in a nite time. By substituting Eq.
(7) in Eq. (9), the following expression was obtained:

min V (x) f0 (x) + V (x) f1 (x)u + (x)

u

Following a notation previously used [8,9], if we dene:

= V (x) f0 (x) + (x)
T
= [ V (x) f1 (x)]
D(x, u) = 0 (x) + 1 (x)u,
x)
0 (

x)
1 (

then, we have that:

min D(x, u) .
u

Note that if the scalar term D(x, u) < 0, one can conclude that the
system is stable in closed loop following the sufcient conditions of
the stability Lyapunov theorem [9]. By the projection theorem, the
controller was nally obtained (Eq. (10)). As the CLF is not a Bellman
function, the controller proposed herein is of suboptimal-type.

Fig. 4. Kinetics of phenol consumption in batch cultures at different S0 (g L1 ): ()

0.20; () 0.29; () 0.40; () 0.60. The symbols represent the experimental results
and the continuous lines, the data resulting from the simulated kinetic model.

u(x) =

0 (x) 1 (x)
T (x)
1 (x)
1

0,

when

when

x)
0 (

x)
0 (
0

>0

(10)

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261

Table 2
Controlled fedbatch cycle.
Phase/actuator

Feeding

Aeration

Settling

Draw

Duration [h]
Feed pump
Magnetic stirrer
Air pump
Drawing pump

4
On
On
On
Off

6
Off
On
On
Off

0.58
Off
Off
Off
Off

0.03
Off
Off
Off
On

The function V (x) was proposed to apply in open loop the controller to the reactor system:
V (x) = x T x
whilst a penalty function (x) was proposed as follows:
(x) = 0.1X 2 + 5S 2 + 1.4V 2
The function (x) penalizes the convergence of the state x , as
it gives negativity to the derivative of the CLF V (x). This is a
positive-denite function and the three scalars (0.1, 5 and 1.4)
were heuristically proposed by considering that the biomass content (X) could be relatively high and that the phenol concentration
(S) should be depleted as soon as possible to minimize the inhibition phenomena. Note that function V (x) is a CLF for the system
(Eqs. (5)(6)), because 1 (x) = 0 if x = 0.
3.4. Experimental validation of the model and the control strategy
As mentioned previously, the aim of the control strategy was to
minimize the length of the cycle by maintaining the phenol concentration at not-inhibitory levels. The simulation of the controller
(Eq. (10)) allowed to obtain a feeding pattern (Fig. 5a) to the reactor
and an initial ow rate (Q0 ) of 20.11 L h1 . Fig. 5b shows the volume prole obtained by simulation of the control strategy from an
initial value (V0 ) of 1 L. According to this prole, the reactor volume
reaches 1.99 L after 4 h of feeding. A fedbatch cycle was designed
from this pattern (Table 2).
The sequence of operations shown in Table 2 was programmed
in the PLC and conducted in open loop in the reactor system
(Fig. 1) with the same initial conditions used in the simulation
(Q0 = 20.11 L h1 , V0 = 1 L). The phenol concentration in the medium
entering to the reactor (Sin ) was 1 g L1 , and the initial biomass

Fig. 6. Phenol consumption () and biomass growth () during the controlled fedbatch cycle. The symbols represent the experimental results and the continuous
lines, the data resulting from the simulated kinetic model.

concentration (X0 ) was set at 0.19 g protein L1 (measured after

suspension of the inoculum in the medium and equivalent to
0.23 g SST L1 ). Experimental and simulated results of the fedbatch
culture are shown in Fig. 6. At the end of the controlled cycle,
the contents of phenol and protein in the medium were 0.01 and
0.47 g L1 , respectively. Thus, an overall amount of 0.98 g of phenol
was degraded in 10 h.
The prediction capability of the model was low for the rst ve
hours of culture, as it was evidenced by the Pearson coefcient
(R2 = 0.73). During this period the biomass was not so inhibited by
phenol as the model predicted, and so the measured phenol concentrations were lower than the simulated ones. This discrepancy
could arise from the use of kinetic parameters obtained from batch
runs for modeling a fedbatch culture [6]. However, the model could
depict adequately the phenol consumption during the last phase
of the culture (R2 = 0.99), as well as the length of the culture permitting the phenol exhaustion (e.g., 10 h). Moreover, the simulated

Fig. 5. Simulation of the controller. (a) Feeding ow rate (Q) to the reactor [L h1 ]; (b) resulting volume (V) prole of the reactor medium [L].

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U. Ba
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Table 3
Operating parameters of the controlled and reference cycles of the fedbatch reactor.
Parameter

Unit

Controlled cycle

Reference cycle

Cycle duration
Hydraulic retention time
Treated ow
X0
Applied phenol load
Phenol mass load

h
h
L h1
g TSS L1
g phenol L1 d1
g phenol g1 TSS d1

10.61
21.28
0.09
0.23
1.13
4.82

24
47.62
0.04
6.10
0.45
0.09

values of the biomass content tracked well the experimental results

throughout the culture (R2 = 0.94).
Table 3 presents a comparison between the operating parameters of the controlled and the reference fedbatch cycles. The
CLF approach did improve the performance of the biodegradation
process because the cycle length diminished from 24 h in the reference cycle to 10.61 h in the controlled cycle. Consequently, the
hydraulic retention time diminished in more than 55% of its original value. The applied phenol load in the controlled cycle was more
than doubled compared to that of the reference cycle. In spite of
this augmentation, the phenol load of the controlled cycle is still
lower than those reported for other processes conducted at higher
biomass concentrations (e.g., 2.68 [13] and 8.15 g phenol L1 d1
[22] in packed-bed and membrane bioreactors, respectively). In
a SBR controlled by online respirometric measurements [25], a
higher phenol load (3.12 g phenol L1 d1 ) was applied too. Leonard
et al. [18] reported an even higher value of the applied phenol
load (19 g phenol L1 d1 ) for a fedbatch process provided with a
closed-loop control strategy based on online colorimetric monitoring of an inhibitory metabolite of phenol degradation, namely the
2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde.
The major enhancement due to the CLF approach was related
to the phenol mass load. As the model predicted that only a low
biomass concentration was needed for the controlled feeding strategy, a 50-fold increase was observed for this parameter. The value
of the phenol mass load (4.82 g phenol g1 TSS d1 ) was higher than
that reported for a membrane bioreactor (0.72 g phenol g1 TSS d1
[22]). Also, the mass load obtained in this study was more than
6-fold higher than that reported for the SBR controlled by online
respirometry (0.88 g phenol g1 TSS d1 [25]). The control of the
phenol concentration in the reactor at non inhibitory levels avoids
the hydrophobic perturbation of the cell membrane, the decrease
in phenol hydroxylase activity [18] and the production of inhibitory
metabolites as 2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde [2,6]. A high productivity of a phenol-degrading culture can thus be achieved by
appropriate control of the feeding rate even without online monitoring of the process variables.
3.5. Parameter sensitivity analysis
A parameter sensitivity analysis was performed to know how
the predictions of the model are affected by variations of the values
of the parameters. The model ability to depict the evolution of both
biomass and phenol concentrations was studied for varying values
of the kinetic parameters max , KS and Ki (Table 4). The minimum
and maximum levels of the parameters were obtained arbitrarily

by subtracting and adding respectively 50% of the nominal value

of each parameter. The model (Eqs. (1)(4)) was solved by varying one parameter at a time while the remaining parameters were
held constant at the nominal values shown in Table 4. The obtained
concentrations of phenol and biomass were compared with those
calculated with the set of nominal values of the parameters. The
absolute error between those values was calculated at regular time
intervals (0.1 h) all throughout the simulation period (10 h), and
then the mean was obtained. The results of the sensitivity analysis
are summarized in Table 4.
For predicting both the phenol and biomass concentrations, the
model is mostly sensitive to changes of the max value. In contrast, Ki is the parameter modifying in the least degree the model
predictions. Decreases in max and Ki modify the model ability to
depict the phenol and biomass concentrations more than increases
in these parameters. Particularly, the predictions of the model
are relatively unaffected when the highest Ki value is employed.
These results are in agreement with those reported previously for
a Haldane-based model depicting a fedbatch phenol biodegradation process [6]. Although that model was based on the inhibitory
metabolite production, max was considered as the critical parameter too. In contrast, the model predictions were almost insensitive
to changes in Ks and Ki [6].
4. Conclusions
The control of the feeding pattern to a fedbatch reactor allowed
the performance of a phenol degradation process to be enhanced.
The control system was a model based on mass balance considerations and on Haldane-type kinetics. Although the kinetic model
was generated from batch cultures, it depicted adequately the evolution of both the phenol and the biomass concentrations in a
fedbatch cycle. The CLF approach was used to synthesize the controller and afterwards to obtain a suboptimal feeding strategy in
relation to the convergence time necessary for phenol depletion. To
the best knowledge of the authors, this is the rst attempt to use the
Lyapunov functions to control biodegradation processes. The feeding strategy was applied in open loop and validated in a lab-scale
fedbatch process. During the controlled cycle, the biodegradation
activity of the biomass was increased by mitigating inhibition
phenomena due to high phenol concentrations. The proposed feeding strategy improved the performance of the process, notably
concerning the phenol mass load, even without online monitoring
of the process variables. As the control of wastewater treatment
processes is often limited by the availability and the employ of
reliable online sensors, this open-loop methodology is a low-cost

Table 4
Results of the parameter sensitivity analysis.
Parameter

Nominal value

Minimum and
maximum values

Mean absolute
error, S [g L1 ]

Mean absolute
error, X [g L1 ]

max
KS
Ki

0.600
0.385
0.700

0.300/0.900
0.193/0.578
0.350/1.050

0.116/0.039
0.029/0.028
0.020/0.006

0.093/0.031
0.023/0.022
0.016/0.005

U. Ba
nos-Rodrguez et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 189190 (2012) 256263

alternative for those biological systems dealing with toxic pollutants.

Appendix A. Appendix AHill-climbing algorithm
The hill-climbing technique is a local search method with a
stochastic component that uses generally a bit string to represent a
set of prototypes or, in some experiments, a collection of features.
From the experimental results of the batch cultures (and by setting
Q = 0 in the simulation), the hill-climbing method was used in order
to minimize the following index:

 

e = Sexperimental Ssimulated  + Xexperimental Xsimulated 

(A.1)

For prototype representation, a real-matrix code was utilized.

The hill-climbing algorithm was thus designed as follows [11]:
1. Prototype representation. The parameters max , KS , Ki and Y were
encoded in a 4-dimensional vector:

 = max

Ks

Ki

2. Vector initialization. The components i (i = 1,. . ., 4) were generated randomly. This vector was called best-evaluated.
3. Mutation. The i of the best-evaluated vector were mutated
according to a random variable, as:
i = i +
where is an uniform random variable [11].
4. Fitness calculation. The index given by Eq. (A.1) depends on
the components i ; then, the tness of the mutated vector was
dened as:
f () =

1
e()

5. If the tness was strictly greater than the tness of the bestevaluated vector, then the best-evaluated vector was set as the
mutated vector.
6. If the maximum number of iterations has been performed, then
return to the best-evaluated vector. Otherwise, go to step 3.
The simulation was made for each iteration in order to obtain
the values Ssimulated and Xsimulated , needed for the calculation of e().
The number of iterations was xed at 1000.
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