Control device for fermenter

A fermentation unit comprising:

• a fermenter, in which biomass is cultured while oxygen gas is blown into a culture medium and the culture medium is stirred;
• a measurement unit connected to the fermenter for measuring nutrient components, a concentration of oxygen, a concentration of carbon dioxide, and a concentration of biomass in the culture medium in the fermenter;
• an input device connected to the fermenter for entering shape data on the fermenter, and for entering measured data regarding at least the nutrient components, concentration of oxygen, concentration of carbon dioxide, and concentration of biomass in the culture medium in the fermenter, which are measured by the measurement unit;
• a processor programmed to calculate a nutrient components uptake rate, an oxygen uptake rate and a carbon dioxide exhaust rate per unit amount of biomass from the data measured by the measurement unit, as well as volumetric mass transfer coefficient kLa from turbulent energy k and a turbulent energy dissipation rate e, both of which are calculated by a transport equation, as well as a diffusion coefficient D, and programmed to calculate the concentrations of the nutrient components, dissolved oxygen, and dissolved carbon dioxide in any area in the fermenter using an algorithm to numerically integrate a differential equation describing variations in medium components over time from the calculated nutrient components uptake rate, the calculated oxygen uptake rate, the calculated carbon dioxide exhaust rate, and the calculated volumetric mass transfer coefficient kLa, wherein the processor calculates mesh data for the fermenter based on the shape data entered by the input device;
• and
• a display means for displaying concentration distributions of the nutrient components, dissolved oxygen, and dissolved carbon dioxide in the fermenter based on the concentrations of the nutrient components, dissolved oxygen, and carbon dioxide in any area of the fermenter calculated by the processor.