Over a hundred engineers and managers from academic, research, and industrial organizations
came to The First European Conference on Computer Control in Fermentation
in Dijon, France in 1973 at the invitation of Professor Blachere. For some it was
the culmination of three years of intensive effort to bring modern process computing
know-how into fermentation technology. For others it was a decision point for extensive
capital investment. But for all it was an acknowledgment that biochemical research
and production has at last entered the age of automation. With this came two
realizations, first, that computer technology must be adapted before it would fit the
needs of microbiologists and, secondly, that instrumentation would have to be developed
before the measurement of biological variables could be put on an objective basis.
As could be expected, the adaptation of computer technology has progressed much
more rapidly than has the science of measurement.
At the conclusion of the Dijon conference it was agreed that a second conference
should be held at the Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung in Stöckheim immediately
following the V IFS in Berlin. In the time intervening the GBF has installed
and operates an advanced computer-coupled pilot plant for biological process development
under the direction of Professor F. Wagner. This installation, which was
funded by grants from the Volkswagen Foundation and the Bundesministerium für Forschung
und Technologie, was conceived and constructed as a unique facility for accelerated
development of biochemical processes through the coupling of a computer hierarchy
to fermentation and recovery equipment in the newly built Biotechnikum. In
fact the data from as many as six fermentation and two recovery processes can now be
gathered on-line by the process computer, analyzed, and transmitted over a data link
to a time-sharing computer for modelling and optimization studies. There is, indeed,
much in Stöckheim to see. However, in view of the week long IFS it seemed preferable
to assemble a monograph of invited chapters, representing a report on the state-ofthe-
art on computer applications to fermentation technology. The individual contributations
have been soli¢ited to give a broad coverage of the goals of computercoupled
fermentation, the problems encountered, and the solutions avalaible today.
The Directors of the GBF have kindly agreed to undervirite the publication of this
report as an item in the GBF Monograph Series published by Verlag Chemie. We all
sincerely hope that it will fulfill the need for a state-of-the-art report on this
field in the year 1976.
With regard to the preparation of this manuscript, I most sincerely thank all of
my colleagues who have contributed their timely ideas to this monograph: Messrs. Armiger,
Bach, Blachere, Corrieu, Hampel, Humphrey, Lehmann, Meskanen, Nyiri, Peringer,
ReuB, Ribot, Rohr, Selva, Taguchi, Vogelmann, Winter, Yoshida, Zabriskie, and Zerbetto.
I thank Prof. Dr. F. Wagner for his encouragement of this effort, the Directors
of the GBF for their direct support of the monograph, and Verlag Chemie for agreeing
to bring it to print as rapidly as possible. I acknowledge with gratitude the helpful service of Dr. J.-H. Walsdorff for publishing and editorial assistance. The financial support of the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie of the German
Federal Republic and the Fulbright Commission, both of which sponsored my work
and leave of absence in Germany, are hereby most gratefully acknowledged