Modeling of Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant Production: Estimation of Kinetic Parameters by Genetic Algorithm

Studies about kinetics and modeling of production parameters for biosurfactants are essential to the development of efficient processes from an economic point of view. In this sense, this work evaluated the performance of four nonstructured models to explain the experimental data for biomass growth, substrate consumption, and rhamnolipid production using glycerol as carbon source and a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain. The kinetic parameters of each model were estimated using a global search method known as genetic algorithm and numerical discretization of differential equations by the Runge–Kutta 4th order method. The main result of this study showed that the Monod model best represented the experimental data, with μ_max values of 0.06 h^?1, K_S of 50.8 g L^?1, Y_X/S of 0.43 g g^?1, and Y_P/X equal to 0.017 g g^?1.