Chemical Product and Process

Modeling
Volume 3, Issue 1 2008 Article 46

Dynamic Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation

in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor Using Genetic
Algorithm Trained Neural Network

Venu Vinod Ananthula, National Institute of Technology

Warangal
Venkat Reddy Goli, National Institute of Technology
Warangal
Neelima Murapaka, National Institute of Technology
Warangal

Recommended Citation:
Ananthula, Venu Vinod; Goli, Venkat Reddy; and Murapaka, Neelima (2008) "Dynamic
Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor Using Genetic Algorithm
Trained Neural Network," Chemical Product and Process Modeling: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1, Article 46.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/cppm/vol3/iss1/46
DOI: 10.2202/1934-2659.1203
©2008 Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved.
Dynamic Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation
in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor Using Genetic
Algorithm Trained Neural Network
Venu Vinod Ananthula, Venkat Reddy Goli, and Neelima Murapaka

Abstract
The aim of this work is to simulate the dynamic behavior of a phenol biodegradation process
in a fluidized bed bioreactor (FBR). Pseudomonas putida is used for the biodegradation of phenol.
A mathematical model was developed to describe the dynamic behavior of the biodegradation
process. The model equations describing the process have been solved, and the rate of
biodegradation and the biofilm thickness at different points of time have been determined. The
mathematical model has been directly mapped onto the network architecture. The network is used
to find an error function. Minimization of error function with respect to the network parameters
(weights and biases) has been considered as training of the network. A real-coded genetic
algorithm has been used for training the network in an unsupervised manner. The system is tested
for two different inlet concentrations of feed. The results obtained are then compared with the
experimental results. It is found that there is a good agreement between the experimental results
and the results obtained from the model.

KEYWORDS: biodegradation, phenol, dynamic, neural network, simulation

 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

1. INTRODUCTION

Fluidized bed bioreactors have been receiving considerable interest in wastewater

treatment. The fluidized bed bioreactor has been shown (Van Den Heuvel and
Beeftink, 1988; Denac and Dunn, 1988; Tang et al., 1987; Tang and Fan, 1987;
Holladay et al., 1978) to outperform other types of reactors. The superior
performance of the fluidized-bed bioreactor is due to very high biomass
concentration due to immobilization of cells onto the solid particles; intimate
contact between gas, liquid and solid phases; decoupling of residence times of
liquid and microbial cells due to immobilization. Extensive information is
available in literature on the biodegradation of phenol and fluidized-bed
bioreactors (Venu Vinod and Venkat Reddy, 2006; Venu Vinod and Venkat
Reddy, 2005; Sa and Boaventura, 2001; Gonzalez et al., 2001; Alvaro et al., 2000;
Livingston and Chase, 1991; Fan et al., 1990; Livingston and Chase, 1989;
Worden and Donaldson, 1987). Phenolic wastewater treatment is done by using
methods like freely suspended cell systems, trickling filters, rotating disc,
activated sludge, biological fixed film methods and fluidized bed bioreactors.
Tricking filters are more advantageous over freely suspended cell systems (Van
Den Heuvel and Beeftink, 1988). However fluidized bed bioreactors have been
found to be superior to other type of reactors (Denac and Dunn, 1988; Holladay et
al., 1978) in relation to volumetric biodegradation capacity. It is highly desirable
to understand the transient behavior of a fluidized bed bioreactor for wastewater
treatment. Fluidized bed bioreactor operation is always in the transient condition
during start-up and shutdown periods. The transient solution of a set of governing
differential equations provides dynamic information.
Modeling of the transient state operation of a liquid-solid fluidized bed
bioreactor has been attempted by several researchers. Worden and Donaldson
(1987) conducted experimental and modeling studies to analyze the dynamic
response behavior of a phenol oxidizing fixed film using an FBR. Experimental
dynamics were compared with a dynamic mathematical model based on diffusion
and reaction within the biofilm. The dynamic model of the biofilm reactor was
able to predict the trends in the data at constant pH. Tang et al. (1987)
investigated the transient response of a draft tube fluidized bed bioreactor (DTFB)
to a step increase in influent phenol concentration. The draft-tube restored the
stable operation when subjected to a 200% step increase in inlet concentration.
Simulation results showed good agreement with experimental data. Nakamura and
Sawada (2000) presented a microbial growth model for estimating the dynamic
behavior of cell growth and substrate consumption in the biodegradation of
phenol containing a heavy metal such as Zn or Cu ions in medium. The transient
solution of the set of differential equations governing a system provides dynamic
information such as the order of the step response, time constant, damping factor

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and process gains, which are essential to the design of control devices of the
bioreactor. Tsuneda et al. (2002) have studied the dynamic response of
completely mixed three-phase fluidized bed biofilm reactor treating simulated
domestic wastewater after a step change has been given in inlet concentration.
Dynamic studies involving phenol has been carried out in other types of
bioreactors, viz., fixed bed biofilm reactor (Leitao and Rodrigues, 1998), trickle
bed bioreactors (Iliuta and Larachi, 2005), fixed biofilm (Tzu-Yang Hsien and
Yen-Hui Lin, 2005).
The model equations for biodegradation of phenol have been
simulated using conventional numerical methods (Livingston and Chase, 1989;
Tang and Fan, 1987; Tang et al., 1987). Solution of the differential equations
(linear and nonlinear) has been obtained previously using neural network
approach (Parisi et al., 2003; Lagaris et al., 1998; Meade and Fernandez, 1994a;
Meade and Fernandez, 1994b; Lee and Kang, 1990). Though there have been
some many reports in literature (Balan et al., 1999) of application of Neural
Network model to predict the biodegradation of phenol, application of Neural
Netwrok – GA method to solve model equations of biochemical processes in
FBR has not been reported. In this work an attempt has been made to solve the
dynamic model equations describing the biodegradation process of phenol in a
fluidized bed bioreactor using a combination of neural network – GA. The mean
squared error (MSE) has been evaluated using a subroutine incorporating ANN
and optimization of weights for ANN has been carried out in the GA module.

ANN as Differential Equation Solver

In early 90’s, it was proved that the approximation capabilities of networks make
Artificial Neural Netwroks (ANN) as numerically accurate and predictable as
conventional computational methods (Lagaris et al., 1998; Meade and Fernandez,
1994a; Meade and Fernandez, 1994b; Lee and Kang, 1990). Finding a neural
network that approximates the solution of a given set of differential equations has
many benefits compared with traditional numerical methods viz., obtaining a
analytic continuous solution (compared to numerical methods), good
generalization capabilities, tackling real time problems reaching the global
minimum of the error surface etc. (Parisi et al., 2003; Lagaris et al., 1998; Meade
and Fernandez, 1994a). In the approach of solving differential equations by neural
networks, the mathematical model of a physical process will be incorporated
directly and accurately in to the architecture of the neural network (Parisi et al.,
2003).

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 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

Genetic Algorithms

In a genetic algorithm, this principle of natural evolution is introduced through its

operators. Several researchers have attempted to apply genetic algorithms to
neural network weight optimization problems (Sexton et al. 1998; Karunanithi et
al., 1992; Schaffer et al., 1992; Dominic et al., 1991).

2. MATHEMATIACAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT

The following assumptions are made to develop the unsteady state isothermal
biofilm model.
1. The rate limiting substrate is only phenol. Sufficient amount of oxygen is
available for the phenol degradation.
2. The substrate is transported from bulk liquid to biofilm phase through the
stagnant liquid-layer by molecular diffusion.
3. Diffusivity of phenol through biofilm and density of biofilm are constant.
4. Production of biomass is proportional to the consumption of phenol.
5. The bed particles may be considered spherical in shape, of uniform size,
and inert to the substrates.
6. The biofilm is uniform in thickness, composition and reactivity.

Under these assumptions, a mass balance for phenol over the fluidized bed reactor
can be written as

RS ,obs = Q( S in − S b ) (1)

Since phenol is the only growth-limiting substrate and all other nutrients are
present in excess amounts and oxygen is sufficiently supplied, the phenol
utilization rate in the biofilm based on diffusion (Fick’s law) and biological
inhibition reaction (Haldane kinetics) can be expressed as:

∂S ⎡ ∂ 2 S 2 ∂S ⎤
= DSf ⎢ 2 + ⎥ − Rp (2)
∂t ⎣ ∂r r ∂r ⎦
where
S
Rp = ρμ max
S2
KS + S +
KI
To solve this equation two boundary conditions and one initial condition are
required. Since no substrate can diffuse through the support medium,

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 Chemical Product and Process Modeling, Vol. 3 [2008], Iss. 1, Art. 46

∂S
at r = rP =0 (3)
∂r
At the biofilm and liquid-film interface, mass transfer of phenol into the liquid-
film is equal to the phenol diffused into the biofilm.

∂S
at r = rP + L f DSf = k S (S b − S i ) (4)
∂r

Since, at time t = 0 the concentration of substrate in the biofilm is zero we have

the initial condition:
at t = 0 S = S0 = 0 (5)

2.1 Growth of biofilm:

As the phenol diffuses into and through the biofilm during biodegradation, the
biofilm utilizes phenol as carbon source for biosynthesis. Since the density of
biofilm is assumed constant, the volume of biofilm and thus the thickness of
biofilm must increase with time as the biofilm grows. Therefore, the phenol
diffuses through a boundary, which can be moving with time. The boundary is
liquid / biofilm interface. Since the biofilm grows upon the utilization of phenol,
the growth rate of biofilm can be expressed by the following equation (Tzu and
Yen, 2005):
rP + L f
dL f Yx / s μ max S
dt
= ∫ S 2
dr (6)
rP
KS + S +
KI
Equations (2) – (5) can be rewritten in terms of nondimensional variables as
follows:
⎡ ⎤
2 ⎢ 2 * ⎥
∂S *
rP ⎢ ∂ S 1 ∂S ⎥
= + − Rp * (7)
∂t * L f ⎢ ∂x 2 rP ∂x ⎥
⎢ x+ ⎥
⎣ Lf ⎦
∂S *
at x = 0 =0 (8)
∂x
∂S * k S L f
at x = 1 = (1 − S i* ) (9)
∂x DSf
at t=0 S * = S 0* (10)

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 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

where
S r − ri tDsf
S* = , x= , t* = ,
Sb r0 − ri L2f (t )
⎡ ⎤
⎢ ⎥
ρμ max ri 2 ⎢ S* ⎥
Rp =
*

S b DSf ⎢ * S
*2 ⎥
⎢KS + S* + * ⎥
⎢⎣ KI ⎥⎦

The phenol degradation rate can be found after equations (6) - (10) have been
solved by integrating the reaction rate over the biofilm for a single bioparticle and
multiplying by the number of particles and reactor as shown in equation (11)

r = rP + L f
N ρ μ max S
RS ,calc = P V
Yx / S ∫ S2
4πr 2 dr
r = rP
KS + S + (11)
KI

Experimental (observed) phenol degradation rate Rsobs is calculated from equation

(1) and then compared with the simulated degradation from equation (11).
Thickness of the biofilm is calculated from equation (6).

3. EXPERIMENTAL

3.1 The reactor set-up

The schematic diagram of the draft tube fluidized bed bioreactor used in the
present work is shown in the Fig. 1.

3.2 Reactor and the draft tube

The fluidized bed bioreactor and the draft-tube are made up of glass. A sparger
made up of same material has been provided at the bottom of the reactor through
which air can be sparged into the reactor. The total volume of the reactor is about
2.67 × 10-3 m3 (2.67 liters). The top of the glass reactor is closed with a plate
through which all the probes and sensors are inserted into the reactor. An
overflow line has been provided near the top so that, the reaction medium flows
out of the reactor in continuous operation.

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Plastic beads with a density of 1005 kg/m3 have been used for
immobilization of the microorganism. The average diameter of the beads is 3.895
mm. Two peristaltic pumps one each for media and feed into the reactor have
been provided. The flow rate of these pumps can be set at the required value using
a flow controller. The capacity of the pumps is 0.11 × 10-7 – 9.7 × 10-7 m3/s (40 –
3500 ml/h).

Figure 1. Experimental Setup for the Biodegradation of Phenol in a Fluidized Bed

Bioreactor

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 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

The reactor is provided with a glass jacket to maintain the temperature of the
reactor system. Depending on the temperature set for the reactor operation,
controller switches on either the heating or refrigeration circuit. Separate tanks
made of stainless steel have been provided for supplying the feed, medium, acid
and base solutions for pH control.

3.3 Reactor instrumentation

To maintain the pH of the system a pH meter and a controller have been provided.
pH has been maintained by addition of acid or base from the tanks provided at the
top. Oxygen will be consumed in the degradation of phenol by microorganism.
Oxygen required for the process has been supplied in the form of air from a
compressor. The oxygen content in the reaction medium can be measured using a
DO meter. The flow rate of air can be measured using rotameter, with a range of
0.167 × 10-4 – 1.67 × 10-4 m3/s (1–10 lpm).

3.4 Microbial culture

A strain of microorganism Pseudomonas sp. reported to be capable of utilizing

phenol as the sole carbon and energy source was obtained from Regional
Research Laboratory, Jammu, India.

3.5 Subculture

The bacterium is subcultured once in a month by preparing slants using nutrient

agar. For every 100ml of nutrient broth/agar the growth medium of the
composition mentioned in Table 1 was added. To each of the test tubes 15ml of
this nutrient agar solution is added in a tilted position around 300 to the horizontal.
After the solidification of the nutrient agar in the test tubes, colonies of bacteria is
introduced on it, and is incubated for 24 hours at 30oC and then it is stored at 4oC
in a refrigerator.

Table 1

For 100ml of Nutrient broth/agar

Compound Concentration, g
Beef Extract 0.3
NaCl 0.5
Peptone 0.5
Agar-agar 1.2

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3.6 Culture preparation

The culture was maintained by periodic subculture on nutrient agar and stored in a
refrigerator. The reaction medium was prepared from this strain by growing the
bacteria on 2.6 × 10-3 m3 (2.6 litres) of 0.05 kg/m3 (50 ppm) of phenol solution
containing growth medium of the composition mentioned in Table 2. Before
inoculation of the organism sterilization of the phenol solution was done in
autoclave at a gage pressure of 1.034× 105 N/m2 (15 psi) for 20 minutes. This has
been done to selectively grow the Pseudomonas species.

Table 2

Composition of growth medium

Compound Concentration, ppm

KH2PO4 420
K2HPO4 375
(NH4)2SO4 240
NaCl 15
CaCl2 15
MgSO4.H2O 30

3.7 Growth medium

The growth medium was made up using tap water. Sterile conditions were not
maintained during the continuous operation of the reactor, to simulate treatment
of actual plant wastewater as the latter would contain different contaminants.

3.8 Biomass

25 ml of the reactor medium was taken in every run and filtered through 0.7 μm
filter paper to separate the biomass produced. The filter paper was dried at 1050C
and weighed again after drying to obtain the weight of the biomass produced.

3.9 Measurement of biofilm thickness

At the beginning and end of the experimental run (indicated by the steady state
reached), some bioparticles were taken into a dish and weighed. They were dried
and again weighed. The difference between these two weights is equal to the
amount of water evaporated. Volume of water evaporated (equal to the weight

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 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

evaporated) divided by the number of particles and the average surface area of
each particle gives the thickness of the biofilm.

3.10 Start-up of the equipment

2.6 liters of reaction medium was transferred to fluidized bed bioreactor and the
organism was allowed to grow in batch mode for 36 hours for immobilization of
microorganism on to the solid particles. In the first run thereafter was put in
continuous operation with a feed flow rate of 510 mlhr-1 (corresponding to the
dilution rate of 0.196 h-1) of inlet phenol concentration of about 64 ppm. The
dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the reactor was maintained at 2 ppm.
The pH in all the runs was maintained at 7.0 using 0.1 N HCl and 0.1 N NaOH.
The reaction temperature was maintained at 300C in all the runs using a
temperature controller provided with a heating/cooling circuit. The concentration
of phenol in the overflow from the reactor was analyzed for every 1hr
iodometrically (Furman, 1959).

4. SIMULATION OF FBR BY FFANN

4.1 Construction of FFANN and evaluation of error function:

A simple multilayer FFANN consisting of one input layer with a single neuron,
one hidden layer with five hidden neurons and an output layer with a single
neuron has been chosen for the solution of differential equations. Each neuron in
the hidden layer uses sigmoid function as its activation function, and each neuron
in the output layers uses purelin function as its activation function.
The two inputs to the networks are the dimensionless time, t* and
dimensionless biofilm thickness, x. The output of the network is dimensionless
phenol concentration within the biofilm, S*. The network architecture is shown in
Fig. 2.
The input to both networks is the dimensionless biofilm thickness, x
and t. The output from the network is the dimensionless phenol concentrations
within the biofilm S*. S* can be written as (detailed procedure in Appendix)

5
S * = ∑ viφ ( z i ) + u out (12)
i =1

z i = w1i x + w2i t + u hi
φ ( x) = tanh( x / 2)

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The dimensionless concentration derivative can be written as

∂S * 5

∂t *
= ∑i =1
v i w 2 iφ 1 ( z i ) (13)

x*

S*
3

t*
4

Figure 2. Network Architecture

∂S * 5
= ∑ v i w1iφ 1 ( z i ) (14)
∂x i =1

∂2S *
= ∑ vi w12iφ 11 ( z i ) (15)
∂x 2
Once the values of S* and its derivatives with respect to x and t* are evaluated,
the error function can be calculated as shown below.

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 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

2
⎧ ⎡ ⎤ ⎫
⎪ * 2 ⎢ 2 * ⎥ ⎪
⎪ ∂S ri ⎢ ∂ S 1 ∂S ⎥ ⎪
( )
E1 x = ⎨ * − + + Rp ⎬ (16)
⎪ ∂t δ ⎢ ∂x 2
r
x + P ∂x ⎥ ⎪
⎪⎩ ⎢ L ⎥ ⎪⎭
⎣ f0 ⎦
2
⎧ ∂S * ⎫
E 2 ( x) = ⎨ ⎬ if x = 0 (17)
⎩ ∂x ⎭
⎡⎧ ∂S * k δ ⎛ S ⎫
2
⎤
* ⎞⎪
− S i ⎟⎟⎬ + {S * − S i* } ⎥
⎪ 2
E 2 ( x ) = ⎢⎨ − S
⎜⎜ b
if x = 1 (18)
⎢⎪⎩ ∂x D Sf ⎝ S R ⎠⎪⎭ ⎥
⎣ ⎦
E 2 ( x) = {S * − S 0 *} 2 if t* = 0 (19)

Then the mean squared error is calculated as follows:

⎛ 1 ⎞ np ⎛ 1 ⎞ 11
MSE = ⎜ ⎟∑ E1 ( xi ) + ⎜ ⎟∑ E 2 ( x j ) (20)
⎜n ⎟ 1 ⎝ 11 ⎠ i
⎝ p⎠

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The model equations describing the dynamic behavior of the phenol

biodegradation process were solved using a FFANN trained with a real-coded GA
to find out the bio-degradation rate and the thickness of the biofilm. A MATLAB
script was developed for this purpose. The model parameters used in the study are
mentioned in Table 3.

Table 3
Model parameters used in the study
Parameter Value Units
μmax 1.436 * 10-4 s-1
-3
Ks 21.92* 10 Kg/m3
KI 522*10-3 Kg/m3
Yx/s 0.6 Kg/kg
ks 0.4*10-4 m/s
Np 6369 --
-3
rp 2.155*10 m
Lfo 1.1*10-6 m
Dsf × 109
0.042 - 0.051 m2/s
ρ 210 Kg/m3

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The architecture of the network was selected by a trail and error

procedure starting with a simple structure of one hidden layer with 3 neurons (the
input and output layer has each one neuron which will be fixed by the problem).
The number of neurons in the hidden layer was increased progressively up to 15.
The decrease in error with respect to increase in hidden neuron was observed. The
network with five neurons in the hidden layer was found to be sufficient for the
present problem. No attempt was made to find out the optimum number of hidden
layers, since it would be better to select a network with minimum number of
hidden layers so that the number of parameters to be optimized will be less in the
training phase. A batch mode of training was adapted, in that the weights are
updated after the presentation of all the training examples that constitute an
epoch.

5.1 Rate of biodegradation

The rate of biodegradation of phenol observed experimentally and that obtained

from simulation have been plotted in Figs. 3 and 4 for feed concentrations of 64
ppm and 76 ppm respectively. The figures show the biodegradation rate increases
with time due to the production of biomass in the reactor. Fig. 3 shows that steady
state is reached at 7.75 hr whereas it takes 9.33 hours for steady state
corresponding to a feed concentration of 76 ppm. This is due to the higher
concentration of phenol in feed. In both the figures there is good agreement
between the observed values and the simulated values. Maximum deviation
between has been found to be 9.6%.

5.2 Growth of biofilm

The thickness of the biofilm calculated from experimental data and the simulated
vales has plotted in Fig. 5, for the data corresponding to the inlet concentration of
64 ppm and 76 ppm. Initial thickness of the biofilm is 1.10e-6 m. There is a
gradual increase in thickness, and the thickness goes up to 4.2e-6 m (simulated)
corresponding a steady state at t = 7.75 hr. The steady state biofilm thickness
obtained for feed concentration of 76 ppm is 6.38e-6 m (simulated) at t = 9.33 hr.
The deviation between the experimental and the simulated values is about 5%.

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Rate of phenol biodegradation 4.00E-05

3.50E-05
3.00E-05
2.50E-05
(kg/h)

Obs
2.00E-05
Sim
1.50E-05
1.00E-05
5.00E-06
0.00E+00
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time, hrs

Figure 3. Observed and Simulated rate of biodegradation of phenol as a function

of time (Feed concentration = 64 ppm)

4.50E-05
Rate of phenol biodegradation

4.00E-05
3.50E-05
3.00E-05
2.50E-05
(kg/h)

Obs
2.00E-05 Sim
1.50E-05
1.00E-05
5.00E-06
0.00E+00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time, hrs

Figure 4. Observed and Simulated rate of biodegradation of phenol as a function

of time (Feed concentration =76 ppm)

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7.00E-06

6.00E-06
Biofilm thickness, m

5.00E-06
64 ppm Sim
4.00E-06 76 ppm Sim
3.00E-06 64 ppm Exp
76 ppm Exp
2.00E-06

1.00E-06

0.00E+00
0 5 10 15
Time, hrs

Figure 5. Growth of biofilm for feed concentrations of 64 and 76 ppm

6. CONCLUSIONS

The model equations describing the dynamic behavior of the phenol

biodegradation process in a fluidized bed bioreactor have been solved using
feedforward artificial neural network and the rate of biodegradation and the
biofilm thickness as a function of time has been calculated. Real-coded genetic
algorithm has been used to train the network in an unsupervised manner. The
program script has been developed using MATLAB. The calculated degradation
rates are in good agreement with the experimental values, with the maximum
deviation being 9.6%. From the result we can suggest that genetic algorithm
trained feed forward neural network can be used for the dynamic simulation of
biodegradation process in a fluidized bed bioreactor.

Nomenclature

D Sf Diffusivity of phenol in biofilm [m2/s]

E Error measure
f*(y) Approximated output from the network
Lf Thickness of biofilm [m]
k Liquid solid mass transfer coefficient for phenol [m/s)
KI Inhibition constant for phenol [kg/m3]

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KS Monod constant for phenol [kg/m3]

K I* Dimensionless Inhibition constant for phenol [kg/m3]
K S* Dimensionless Monod constant for phenol [kg/m3]
n Number of inputs to the FFANN
np Number of points in the time domain
nPOP Population size
N Output of the network
pc Crossover probability
P Number of points in the integration domain
PB Total number of boundary points
Q Flow rate of feed [m3/s]
r Radial position in biofilm [m]
rp Radius of biomass free bioparticle [m]
RSobs Observed rate of phenol degradation [kg/hr]
RScalc Calculated rate of phenol degradation [kg/hr]
Sb Phenol concentration in bulk liquid [kg/m3]
S in Phenol concentration in feed [kg/m3]
S0 Phenol concentration at t = 0. [kg/m3]
Si Phenol concentration at the interface between a
bioparticle and bulk liquid [kg/m3]
S* Dimensionless phenol concentration
t Time [s]
t* Dimensionless time
ui , uout Bias of hidden unit i and output unit, respectively
vi Weight from the hidden unit i to the output unit
wij Weight from the input unit j to the hidden unit i
x Dimensionless biofilm thickness
Yx / s Yield coefficient
ρ Density of biofilm [kg/m3]
μ max Maximum specific growth rate of biomass [h-1]
ϕ Sigmoid transfer function

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APPENDIX

The Method

Let us consider a general differential equation in the form:

D (f (y)) = 0 (A1)

with respect to boundary conditions

B (f (y)) = 0 (A2)

Where D and B are any non-linear, inhomogeneous differential operators and f (y)
is the solution that satisfies equation (A1) and the boundary conditions (A2).
Considering that an FFANN is a universal function approximator, the goal of the
method is to find a neural network f*(y) which approximates f(y) in the finite
domain y ∈[a,b]n .

Consider a multilayer FFANN with n input units, one hidden layer

with H sigmoid units and a linear output unit. For a given input
r
vector x = ( x1 ,...,xn ) the output of the network N, is given by
H
N = ∑ viϕ (zi ) + uout (A3)
i=1

Where
n
zi = ∑ wij x j + ui (A4)
j =1

Since ϕ is a continuous and derivable function of x, it can be shown that (Lagaris

et al., 1998):
∂k N H
= ∑ vi wijkϕ k (zi ) (A5)
∂x kj i =1

Where ϕ k denotes the kth derivative of the sigmoid function.

Hence it is possible to approximate the differential operators D and B

using the network; in other words f(y) can be approximated by a network (N) with
a differentiable activation function. In order to find an approximation of f(y),

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DOI: 10.2202/1934-2659.1203
 Ananthula et al.: Simulation of Phenol Biodegradation in a Fluidized Bed Bioreactor

equation (A1) along with boundary conditions (A2) can be chosen as the
performance function of the network. The error measure E must be evaluated in a
finite number of points (P) into the integration domain yi ∈[a,b]n .

2 PB 2
1 P 1
E ( w) = ∑
P i
[ D( f * ( yi ))] +
PB
∑ [ B( f * ( y j ))]
j
(A6)

PB is the total number of boundary points and f*(y) is the approximated output
from the network corresponding to the input points ( yi , y j ). As E tends to zero,
f* tends to f and so the approximate solution for the differential equation system is
found. The efficient minimization of equation (A6) can be considered as a
procedure of training the neural network. At this point, the original problem has
been reduced to an unconstrained optimization problem involving the
minimization of the error E with respect to the network parameters wij and u i.e.,
weights and biases. Since the error does not depend on target outputs (the function
f is unknown a priori) the network is said to be trained in an unsupervised manner.

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