Static and Dynamic Analysis of a Continuous Bioreactor Model for the Production of Biofuel from Refinery Wastewater Using Rhodococcus opacus

Abdelhamid Ajbar, Rubayyi T. Alqahtani () and Salihu S. Musa
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Abdelhamid Ajbar: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Rubayyi T. Alqahtani: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia
Salihu S. Musa: Department of Applied Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China

Mathematics, 2022, vol. 10, issue 16, 1-12

Abstract: This paper studied the bifurcation phenomena that can occur in a continuous bioreactor for lipid-rich biomass production using Rhodococcus opacus that feeds on refinery wastewater. An unstructured model of the bioreactor was developed based on experimentally validated studies reported in the literature. The analysis of the unsteady-state model was carried out both analytically and through numerical simulations. It was shown that the inhibition effect of the biomass growth rate can lead to the occurrence of static bistability in the model. Periodic behavior was also found for some range of model parameters. The effect of model parameters on the productivity of the bioreactor was also investigated. The analysis carried out in this paper allowed for the detection of unsafe operating regions in the bioreactor which, would help in the attenuation of these operational problems in the early stage of process design.

Keywords: refinery wastewater; R. opacus; lipid production; continuous bioreactor; stability; bifurcation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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