Donatas Levisauskas

Kaunas University of Technology · Institute of Automation and Control Technologies

Edible fungi are a valuable resource in the search for sustainable solutions to environmental pollution. Their ability to degrade organic pollutants, extract heavy metals, and restore ecological balance has a huge potential for bioremediation. They are also sustainable food resources. Edible fungi (basidiomycetes or fungi from other divisions) repr...

In this paper, a portable instrument for surface tension measurements, characterization and applications is described. The instrumentation is operated wirelessly, and samples can be measured in situ. The instrument has changeable different size probes; therefore, it is possible to measure samples from 1 ml up to 10 ml. The response of the measured...

The cell cultivation process in a bioreactor is a high-value manufacturing process that requires excessive monitoring and control compatibility. The specific cell growth rate is a crucial parameter that describes the online quality of the cultivation process. Most methods and algorithms developed for online estimations of the specific growth rate c...

Unknown extraction recovery from solid matrix samples leads to meaningless chemical analysis results. It cannot always be determined, and it depends on the complexity of the matrix and properties of the extracted substances. This paper combines a mathematical model with the machine learning method—neural networks that predict liquid extraction reco...

Wooden sleepers used in railways are impregnated with preservatives with fungicidic and bactericidic properties, which contain a large amount of harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The aim of this research was to reveal the type of fungi in the rhizosphere of plants, which tolerate pollutants and can be involved in bioremediation process of c...

This contribution discusses the main challenges related to successful application of automatic control systems used to control specific growth rate in industrial biotechnological processes. It is emphasized that, after the implementation of basic automatic control systems, primary attention shall be paid to the specific growth rate control systems...

For historic reasons, industrial knowledge of reproducibility and restrictions imposed by regulations, open-loop feeding control approaches dominate in industrial fed-batch cultivation processes. In this study, a generic gray box biomass modeling procedure uses relative entropy as a key to approach the posterior similarly to how prior distribution...

The studies were carried out in the period of 2013–2014 in experiment developed during plant vegetation, cultivating five plant species in the vegetative pots with the substrate contaminated with used sleepers (US) and uncontaminated substrate fertilised with nitrogenous fertilisers. The objective of the research is to analyse the morphological fea...

A control system for set-point control of microbial cultivation process parameters is developed, in which a tendency model is applied for controller adaptation to process nonlinearity and time-varying operating conditions. The tendency model is updated on-line and introduced into control algorithm for prediction of steady-state control action and r...

The miniaturization and optimization of a white rot fungal bioremediation experiment is described in this paper. The optimized procedure allows determination of the degradation kinetics of anthracene. The miniaturized procedure requires only 2.5 ml of culture medium. The experiment is more precise, robust, and better controlled comparing it to clas...

A group of 36 fungal strains, belonging to the Lithuanian mycobiota, was collected and isolated from different locations, habitats, and matrices, including creosote-treated wood in storage yards for crosstie wastes. The eight most perspective strains selected according to preliminary assessment of tolerance to coal tar were subsequently identified...

Creosote oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbon compounds obtained from high temperature distillation of coal tar. It is used for over 100 years as a fungicide, insecticide, miticide, and sporicide to protect wood and is applied by pressure methods to wood products, primary utility poles and railroad ties. This treated wood is intended for exterio...

The aim was to develop a new improved Sorbent system (S-S) from organic sorbent material, nutrients, biosurfactant and microbial cell producing it for bioremediation of heavy oil hydrocarbons in various soil types. New sorbent material (S-M) was developed from paper mill short waste fibers because it requires very low energy to manufacture and the...

The aim of this study was to identify and optimize significant technological parameters influencing keratinolytic enzyme production by A. fradiae 119 and to study its ability to degrade keratin. In the present work chicken feathers meal (CFM) was found to be an excellent substrate for keratinase induction by A. fradiae 119. The strain produced 164...

Lipids constitute one of the major types of organic matter found in municipal wastewater. Many manufacturing, food processing and industrial facilities dispose of liquid waste into sewer lines. Liquid waste often contains fats, oils and grease and other organic contaminants which, over time, lead to clogs in pipes. The treatment of this problem is...

An inferential control system has been developed for off-gas analysis-based control of fed-batch microbial cultivation process to follow a desired biomass growth trajectory, which is an important objective in many cultivation processes. The control system exploits an original specific growth rate estimator from the oxygen uptake rate on-line measur...

Microalgae invite the attention of scientists due to their unique properties, including their ability to grow quickly, accumulate lipids and other valuable materials, fix carbon dioxide and treat wastewater. Several studies have aimed to identify cost-effective production methods for microalgae biomass. In this paper, several potential inexpensive...

This paper was presented in the 9th International Conference "The Vital Nature Sign", held in Kaunas, 14-16 May 2015. The screening of PAH in used wooden railway sleepers treated with coal tar and creosote for their protection against biodegradation has been made. The analysis was based on cold solvent extraction and Soxhlet extraction of PAH using...

Biodiesel fuel was produced by the transesterification of microalgae oil using sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. The oil was extracted from heterotrophic cultivated algae biomass. The transesterification process was optimized using response surface methodologyto increase the yield of methyl esters. The Box–Behnken design and fractional factorial desi...

While data-based modeling is possible in various ways, data-based optimization has not been previously described. Here we present such an optimization technique. It is based on dynamic programming principles and uses data directly from exploratory experiments where the influence of the adjustable variables u were tested at various values. Instead o...

This paper proposes a bioprocess optimization procedure based on Relevance Vector Regression models and evolutionary programming technique. Relevance Vector Regression scheme allows developing a compact and stable data-based process model avoiding time-consuming modeling expenses. The model building and process optimization procedure could be done...

The researchers of BioVal project used the activated sludge process mathematical model with the goal to develop and test a control system for autotrophic biomass specific growth rate. The article describes the implementation of the biological wastewater treatment process model and control system into software SIMULINK (MATLAB). By means of the acti...

A computation procedure is developed for identification of dynamic model intended for solving the biomass growth-related optimization problems at fed-batch fermentation processes. The model identification relies on exploiting a versatile structure model that covers several particular structure models commonly used in bioprocess engineering practice...

In this article, application of state estimation techniques for indirect measurement of biomass concentration and specific growth rate in a typical fedbatch biotechnological process is discussed. Two stateof- the-art algorithms were implemented: Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and feed-forward artificial neural networks (ANN) of various structures. Ox...

D. Levisauskas, T. Tekorius. Investigation of P and PD Controllers' Performance in Control Systems with Steady-State Error Compensation // Electronics and Electrical Engineering. - Kaunas: Technologija, 2012. - No. 5(121). - P. 63-68. In the paper, performance of P and PD controllers in control systems with steady-state error compensation is invest...

In the paper, performance of P and PD controllers in control systems with steady-state error compensation is investigated and compared with a performance of ordinary PI and PID control systems. The investigation is carried out by computer simulation of the control systems in controlling the processes with various dynamic parameters. Performance of...

The control system is developed for accurate set-point control of dissolved oxygen concentration in industrial aeration tank based on adaptation of PI controller to time-varying dynamics of the controlled process. The controller adaptation algorithm refers to the process state model-based transfer function that follows changes in process dynamics b...

The complex, effective and innovative cleaning technology for lipid-rich wastewater and pipelines contaminated by lipids, was developed. For this purpose, laboratory experiments were performed to verify the efficiency of bacterial preparation (Enterobacter aerogenes E13, Arthrobacter sp. N3 and Bacillus coagulans S1) to degrade the grease in water...

T. Tekorius, D. Levisauskas. Comparative Investigation of Feed-Forward Control Algorithms // Electronics and Electrical Engineering. - Kaunas: Technologija, 2011. - No. 9(115). - P. 79-82. The paper presents investigation results of four different structures of feed-forward control algorithms applied for controlling processes, in which the time del...

An approach of feed-forward controller design is investigated, in which the controlled process dynamics is approximated by first order plus time delay models, and the resultant transfer function of controller takes a form of lead-lag compensator with a dead-time term. In the case of negative dead-time, this term cannot be implemented, and the contr...

A new composting technology of waste with high fat content was developed in JSC “Biocentras”. The composting technology of fat‐contaminated waste is based on the use of fat‐oxidizing microorganisms. Developed technology is commended for cleaner production/pollution prevention approach as well as meets strict environmental and hygiene requirements....

An algorithm for adaptive control of temperature in methane tank is developed in order to minimize operating costs under variation of the methane tank process conditions. The adaptation is based on process model and on-line minimization of objective function that relates operating costs to the process variables. Mathematical model for prediction of...

The polynomial model has been developed for prediction of biogas production rate in industrial methane tank process. Prediction of biogas production refers to the measurements of temperature in methane tank and the inlet sludge flow rate. Identification and validation of the model is based on the data of laboratory experiments and observation data...

The paper presents the results of model-based optimization of fed-batch culture Enterobacter aerogenes 17 E13 for maximization of biomass productivity. A mathematical model for the problem solving is developed using mass-balance conditions for cells' biomass and limiting substrate, relevant kinetic relationships for modeling the specific rates of b...

Mathematical model has been developed for modelling dynamical behaviour of the dissolved oxygen concentration in an industrial scale biological wastewater treatment process. Parameters of the process model are indentified using monitoring data from wastewater treatment plant. The model identification and validation results are presented.

The response surface methodology based process optimization procedure, including design of factorial experiments, development of statistical model and estimation of the optimum response point is simulated in order to investigate influence of experimental errors and experimental design area on the optimization accuracy. The investigated practical pr...

The state model-based transfer function models are applied for adaptation of linear controller and disturbance compensator in a feedback/feed-forward control system of nonlinear process. An advantage of the presented adaptation method is the avoidance of artificial disturbances or iterative identification procedures for on-line estimation of proces...

A problem of the model-based optimization of fed-batch cultivation process is solved for two control actions: feed-rate and dilution rate. A goal of optimization is to maximize the yield of cells' biomass at the end of cultivation cycle. Two alternative optimization methods, based on the maximum principle of Pontryagin and the finite dimensional op...

Environmental performance today has become one of the many important measures of business success in the local and international level. Environmental assessment using specific indicators is a tool for reviewing, monitoring, checking, and evaluation of performance. To facilitate decision support in the environmental performance evaluation, quantitat...

An adaptive control algorithm is developed that increases the performance of the temperature control system of a water heating boiler. In the control system, parameters of PI controller and compensator of load disturbances are adjusted on-line using modified gain scheduling approach that refers to a state model of the controlled process and on-line...

Fed-batch cultivation of Azotobacter vinelandii 21was optimized for biosurfactant production. Optimization of feed-rate time profile and concentration of nutrient medium components in feeding solution is based on a hybrid mathematical model consisting of mass-balance equations for biomass, biosurfactant, volume of cultural liquid and substrate comp...

An optimized fed-batch cultivation process for the production of the polyoma virus capsid protein VP1 in recombinant Escherichia coli BL21 bacteria is presented. The optimization procedure maximizing the amount of desired protein is based on a mathematical model. The model distinguishes an initial cell growth phase from a protein production phase i...

Inferential control algorithms and systems for set-point control of the specific growth rate in fed-batch cultivation processes are presented. Realization of the proposed control systems does not require mathematical model and a priori knowledge of the culture of microorganisms under control. Feed-back signal in PID control loops of the investigate...

A model-based feed-rate profile optimization problem is discussed for the fed-batch recombinant protein production. Two optimization procedures, an evolutionary programming technique and a simplified method using the dynamic programming concept, are discussed and compared. Modeling as well as experimental results are presented.

Fed-batch production processes for recombinant proteins are of the prime importance in modern biotechnology. In order to run the high performance process, it is necessary to keep it in optimal path. Nevertheless, at present there is no reliable methods for the on-line determination of key process variables and to use estimation results for control...

In modern biotechnology the specific biomass growth rate () is a key factor influencing the productivity of bioprocess, e.g. recombinant fed-batch cultivation processes. For the process improvement it is desirable to determine an optimal  profile by means of open loop optimization techniques and then, using closed loop control, to keep the desire...

Fast and reliable design of the new processes is the experiment design theory can be effectively applied to optimize the solving procedure. However, optimization of dynamical biotechnological processes is quite industrial biotechnology. For solving of static optimization problems the complicated problem because the classical experiment planning the...

A new simple strategy for a reliable and robust automatic control of the specific growth rate in fed-batch cultivation processes is presented. Its advantages over model supported control is that the algorithm only needs a minimum of information about the process. Moreover, it is independent of the specific microorganism, the cultivation phase and t...

An effective automatic control algorithm for set-point control of dissolved oxygen concentration in batch culture has been developed. Adaptation of PI controller to the variable state of batch culture is based on analytically obtained functional relations between the controller parameters and the state variables: oxygen uptake rate, stirring speed,...

The implementation of adaptive control for a fed-batch culture in order to maximize the output of product based on a self-adjusting model is discussed in the present work. Optimization methods were applied to the generalized mathematical model of a fed-batch fermentation process to determine control algorithms that could be used for on-line process...

A graphical method is proposed for batch fermentation process optimization. Its objective function is the maximum output of the product when the time of process is fixed or free. The technique of optimization is based on Bellman's dynamic programming concepts and the assumption that the process can be described by mathematical models of generalized...

The extension of a recently developed method for gain scheduling of linear controllers is applied for self-tuning of feed-forward/feed-back control system that is applied for automatic control of contaminated soil washing technological process. Adaptation of the feed-back and the feed-forward controller parameters to the time-varying state of contr...

Technological process of washing soil contaminated by oil pollutants is optimized for the minimization of the process cost price. An objective function relating the cost price to the technological parameter values, such as duration of washing cycle, concentration of biosurfactant in washing solution, temperature and pH of washing solution, is devel...