ABSTRACT
Isidoro García-García, Jorge E. Jiménez-Hornero, Inés María Santos-Dueñas, Zoilo González-Granados, and Ana María Cañete-Rodríguez
Chapter Authors:
García-García, I. (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7102-0864" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7102-0864)
Jiménez-Hornero, J.E. (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5560-239X" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5560-239X)
Santos-Dueñas, I.M. (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1357-0139" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1357-0139)
González-Granados, Z. (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5652-2957" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5652-2957)
Cañete-Rodríguez, A.M. (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1557-6761" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1557-6761)
Affiliations
García-García, I., Santos-Dueñas, I.M., and Cañete-Rodríguez, A.M.
Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Marie Curie Building, Campus of Rabanales, University of Cordoba, Spain.
Jiménez-Hornero, J.E.
Department of Computing and Numerical Analysis, Leonardo da Vinci Building, Campus of Rabanales, University of Cordoba, Spain.
González-Granados, Z.
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio, CSIC, c/Kelsen 5, Madrid, Spain
While bioprocessing is rapidly increasing and its importance is well-established, especially in the food sector, the proper implementation of bioprocesses requires deep analysis of their fundamentals and methods to be used for their design and optimization. The complex interrelationships encountered in addressing the ensuing multidisciplinary problems need sophisticated models accounting for the observed behavior and operationally simple enough for practical application. Such behavior can be approximated with mechanistic models based on the inherent fundamental biological and physicochemical principles or with simpler, black-box models merely predicting the response of a system under a variety of operating conditions. This chapter introduces some basic aspects related to the different modeling approaches, and as an example, it describes how the process of ethanol conversion into acetic acid (the main transformation in vinegar production) can be modeled with both types of methods. The complex mathematical problems to be solved with mechanistic models (e.g., to verify identifiability) rarely provide a completely reliable solution. Therefore, if a main reason for using mechanistic models is to explain the bioprocess principles and to identify specific parameters of biological/physicochemical significance, this problem makes them impractical in many cases. For this reason, black-box models are increasingly being used to model bioprocesses.
