Optimal Drum Filtration Strategy in Enzyme Recovery 06-11-20 JPR

Technical University of Denmark
In collaboration with Novozymes A/S

November 6, 2020
Optimal Drum Filtration Strategy in

Enzyme Recovery
Martin Kallesøe Levy s153070

Philip Strand s153629
Abstract
Preface
This project is carried out at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in partial ful-
fillment of the requirements for the MSc in chemical engineering. The assignment was
carried out at masters level at the department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
under the supervision of Jakob Kjøbsted Huusom. Claus Riber from Novozymes A/S was
acting as external supervisor on the project. The assignment was initiated on 03-08-20
and ended on 22-12-20.
Philip Strand Martin Kallesøe Levy

Contents
1 Background and project plan 1

1.1 Enzyme recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Conceptual drum filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Novozymes A/S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4 Problem statement and thesis plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Theory and data collection 10

2.1 Drum filtration theory and modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Novozymes setup and data collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 Planning and scheduling models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Prior work and experiences done by Novozymes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5 Limitations in the application of PWO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Current operation in Novozymes 26

3.1 Performance of Novozymes production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 Process and operator survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4 Static scheduling model 38

4.1 Objectives and constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2 Matlab implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 Optimal vs. historical schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.4 Model analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Dynamic Scheduling model 54

5.1 Optimal starting configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.2 Set point model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.3 Uncertainty model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6 Testing the model 58
7 Single filter analysis 59
Nomenclature I
Bibliography III
A Enzyme recovery process VI
B Dimensions of the filter drums in BE VII
C Enzyme recovery process VIII
D Questionnaire IX
E Flows through individual drums X

Chapter 1
Background and project plan
In 1997, the global enzyme market value approached approximately 1 bil.$ annually [1]
due to development of molecular biology tools and the introduction of genetic modification
[2]. In 2019, the global enzyme market size was valued at 9.9 bil.$ and is expected to grow
with an annual growth rate of 7.1 % from 2020 to 2027 where the global market value will
be nearly 15 bil$ [3]. If this prediction will hold, the market of enzymes has expanded by
1400% over a period of 30 years and is therefore a very interesting area of research.
Enzymes are proteins, which are present in all living organisms on Earth. Each cell syn-
thesizes a large number of different enzymes to maintain its metabolic reactions. Enzymes
are used biologically and are vital for life as they serve a wide range of important functions
in the body, such as aiding in the digestion and metabolism. Enzymes works as natural
catalysts and can replace chemicals and accelerate industrial production processes. This
helps several industries in reducing their environmental impact, as energy, time and waste
can be produced, while the production is increased in the meantime.
Figure 1.1: Function of an enzyme by [4]

Page 2 of 61
Enzymes are used for a broad variety of daily products within the areas of detergent,
food, beverage, baking, animal nutrition. Also within renewable energy sector, enzymes
are used for the production of biofuels and biogas. Enzymes are very specific. Each
enzyme has a particular function, since it only reacts to a certain kind of substrate. Thus
it is possible to design an enzyme to perform a specified task. The reaction of the substrate
takes place on the active site of the enzyme, where the substrate is bound by the amino
acids found on the active site. The combination of amino acid and the three-dimensional
structure of the enzyme determines the function.
The large-scale production of industrial enzymes can be divided into three main oper-
ations: fermentation, recovery, and formulation of the enzymes. These steps are not
independent in the sense that optimization of the interaction between them would lead
to the optimal production of enzymes.
Figure 1.2: Overall enzyme production
Enzymes are sensible to changes in the surrounding environment. This is parameters

as temperature, pH and shear force. It is important to consider the conditions in the
downstream processing to maintain the maximum activity of the enzyme as possible.
Fermentation
The fermentation is the initial step of enzyme production. Here the enzyme is synthesized
from a host microorganism. The most widely used host organisms are filamentous fungi
and Gram-positive bacteria [5]. The host microorganisms can be manipulated by generic
engineering in order to accentuate the desired characteristics and remove the side activities
that might interfere with the intended function of the enzyme. The fermentation takes
place in a fermenter. Almost all enzyme fermentations are aerobic. Thus, oxygen is
required by the microorganism. Maximal transport of oxygen inside the fermenter is a
crucial factor for a successful fermentation. Other factors that affects the fermentation is
feed rate, foam level, total pressure, partial pressure of oxygen, pH and temperature. The
stock culture is stored frozen or freeze-dried. The inoculum mixture is prepared by growing
an aliquot in consecutive liquid or solid cultures of increasing volume. When the volume
of the seed fermentation mixture is between 4-12% [5] of the main fermenter volume, the
Page 3 of 61
actual batch fermentation is started. The medium in which the microorganism grows
contains nutrients for the organism, mostly agricultural products, such as starch, plant
protein, and sugars. The batch fermentation can be divided into a growth phase and a
production phase. In the growth phase only a small amount of enzyme is produced, while
the host organism is growing. In the production phase the growth of the microorganism
slows down, while the production of enzyme increases. When the fermentation is finished,
the batch should relatively fast be transferred to the recovery line of the process to avoid
enzyme degradation and thereby loss of enzyme activity.
Recovery
The focus of this project is within the enzyme recovery. This topic will be further de-
scribed in section 1.1. The principle purpose of the recovery process is to remove all non
proteinaceous material from the culture broth. Most of the enzymes produced industrially
are extracellular, which means that the enzyme is secreted by the cell into the medium
with only few other components. Thus, the first step of the isolation is separation of the
cells from the solution. For the case of intracellular enzymes, a method of cell disruption
technology needs to be applied for the enzyme to be released. Several of these methods
are used in the research on enzymes, but only a few is used on an industrial scale [6]. After
the primary separation, the enzyme is further recovered by several filtration technologies.
At last, the enzyme is stabilized with chemical additives and concentrated by removing
water using ultra filtration and evaporation [7]. The recovery process is a balance between
recovery of a large amount of enzyme, while maintaining a high yield and activity of the
enzyme.
Formulation
After the recovery of the enzyme from the fermentation broth, the enzyme is usually in
an aqueous solution or processed to a dried state. Both types of recovered enzyme need
to be formulated into a final product that meets the requirements from the costumer. A
very important factor is the stability of the enzyme at the time between the production
to the time of use [8]. Especially the enzyme activity is important to maintain after an
extended period of storage at various surrounding conditions.
Another important stability issue is the microbial stability. This is most relevant for liquid
formulations. An aqueous solution of industrial recovered enzyme is an attractive growth
media for undesired microbial activity, such as bacteria or moulds. Enzymes produced
in the industry has very different specifications in order to function in a divergent range
of applications in various industries. These can be of physical character as having no
precipitate, no colour or odor [5]. Requirements for solid formulations can be dust level,
particle size and flowability. Any formulation is a balance between all these requirements
and the cost of meeting them when formulating the final enzyme product.
Enzyme recovery Page 4 of 61
1.1 Enzyme recovery
In this section the enzyme recovery process will be described further, with regard to prepa-
ration of the suspension, primary separation methods and subsequent unit operations in
the recovery process. The first part of the process is shown in Figure 1.3.
Figure 1.3: Sketch of the first part of the enzyme recovery including the pretreatment and
primary separation step. The full enzyme recovery process can be seen in Appendix A.
Pretreatment
To achieve the most effective separation, the suspension undergoes a pretreatment pro-
cess, which purpose is to facilitate the separation. A high flux and enzyme yield is the
main objectives of a successful separation. The pretreatment process contains three steps:
dilution, coagulation and flocculation. The exact procedure varies from fermentation to
fermentation. In some cases, the pretreatment only contains a dilution and a pH ad-
justment step. This is often in the case of a fungal broth, whereas the bacterial culture
broth requires the full pretreatment procedure. The undesired solids in the suspension
consists of cell debris and microbial cells. When the suspension is diluted and pH ad-
justed, chemicals are added to flocculate the larger particles. The economy of the enzyme
recovery process is highly dependent on the pretreatment as large amounts of water and
flocculation- and pH adjustment chemicals are used. On the other hand, a successful
flocculation will enhance the chance of a better downstream capacity, product quality
and yield. The evaluation of the pretreatment process is done by a visual inspection or
by measurement of NTU and sludge percentage. NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit) is
Enzyme recovery Page 5 of 61
used for determination of cloudiness of a fluid caused by the size of the suspended parti-
cles. The sludge percent gives an indication of how much the culture broth is flocculated.
The value should be between a lower limit and an upper limit. Below the lower limit,
the culture broth is not flocculated enough and the primary separation will not be very
efficient as more non desired particles will flow through the filter. Above the upper limit,
more enzyme will bind to the sludge and not be recovered to the filtrate.
The flocculation varies greatly from product to product, but also from batch to batch.
This is the reason that the pretreatment is very difficult to control in a continuous pro-
cess. The desired size of the flocculated particles (flocs) are balanced between larger flocs,
which are easily separated in the filtration step, and smaller flocs that does not entrap
liquid containing enzyme [8].
Filtration principles
The driving force for a filtration is a pressure difference between the feed and the fil-
trate. This pressure difference can be created in two ways. Either by pressurizing the
feed (pressure filtration) or by creating a vacuum on the filtrate side (vacuum filtration).
The pressure difference is dependent on which filtration principles is used. Overall, there
exists dead-end filtration and cross-flow filtration. In dead-end filtration, the suspension
is forced through the filter surface. This principle can be divided into cake filtration and
depth filtration. In cake filtration, which will be the focus in this project, the particles
are partly retained at the surface of the filter media, where they will form a cake. The
thickness of the cake will increase with time. The concept of cake filtration has shown to
be the most practical and applied filtration principle in enzyme recovery. With the build-
up of filtration cake the flow of filtrate decreases due to the increasing cake resistance.
This challenge is handled using filter aids. This topic will be elaborated in section 1.2.
Depth filtration is mainly used for suspensions that contain smaller amounts of solids.
Most depth filters are disposable and will be replaced when the resistance gets too high.
In cross-flow filtration the suspension is pumped tangentially over a filter media. In most
cases the filter media is a membrane with small pore thickness often used for ultrafiltration.
Polishing, stabilization and concentration

After the primary separation, the decreasingly viscous suspension is further polished in
Primus filters and by germ filtration. The Primus filter have the objective to remove
excess cell material and antifoaming agents added in the fermentation. The filtrate is then
pressed through an ultrafiltration module. The enzyme is kept in the retentate in this step.
The ultrafiltration functions as a semipermeable membrane with pore size around 0.1µm,
where water, salts and other low molecular-weight impurities are removed as permeate
Conceptual drum filtration Page 6 of 61
[5]. Subsequently the enzyme suspension is stabilized with various stabilization chemicals
and further concentrated by vacuum evaporation.
1.2 Conceptual drum filtration
The requirements of high throughput, yield and product quality makes the rotary vacuum
drum filter the most optimal primary separation technology as of today. In this part the
concept of the drum filtration will be described. The technology was patented in 1872
and is one of the oldest filters used in the industrial liquid-solids separation [9]. A rotary
vacuum drum filter can be seen in Figure 1.4.
(a) Rotary vacuum drum filter by [10].

(b) Schematics of a rotary vacuum drum filter.
Figure 1.4: Overview of a rotary vacuum drum filter.
Drum filtration is a process step that filtrates the liquid from the solids by subjecting
the sludge to vacuum. The solids are retained on the filter cloth and scraped off just
before a full rotation, as can be seen in Figure 1.4b. The sludge sticks to the drum by
vacuum, but a semipermeable layer of precoat, often Perlite, is applied to the drum in
the beginning of a filtration, as a precoating layer. The purpose of filter aids is to reduce
cake resistance and to improve permeability. The filter aid can be applied at the filter
in two ways. Either by mixing filter aid (body feed) with the suspension prior to the
filtration or by precoating the filter with a cake of filter aid. The most common used filter
aids in large scale enzyme recovery are Perlites and Kieselguhrs as they provide a porous
surface. Perlites are used especially for suspensions containing high sludge volumes, which
makes it suitable for the drum filtration, while the Kieselguhrs are used for low sludge
suspensions and are therefore applied in the following polishing filtration steps. During
the filtration, the layer of precoat is continuously shrinking, as the filter knife cuts of a
Conceptual drum filtration Page 7 of 61
narrow part by each rotation. The precoating layer is usually applied to a depth between
4 and 15 cm. Following, the feed is introduced to the trough, and the filtration begins.
Continuously, the filter cake and a small layer of the precoat is removed, as the filter knife
slowly approaches the drum of about 5 µm per rotation. For each rotation, the surface
of the drum restores its permeability, until the thickness of the precoating layer reaches a
point, where the feed needs to be interrupted, as it will be necessary to recoat the drum.
Applications of drum filters
When looking at the concept of a drum filter one would expect that this kind of equipment
would soon be replaced by a filtration technology that would increase the level of control
and decrease the variance in production. Nevertheless, the rotary vacuum drum filter
remains the most applied filtration technology in large-scale production of chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and minerals. Whenever a large quantity of slurry that is
operated in a continuous manner, and consists of a considerable part of solids, in the
range of 15-30%, a drum filter is the most suitable filtration method that exists. The
pharmaceutical applications of the drum filter include the collection of calcium carbonate,
magnesium carbonate and starch. Also in the manufacture of antibiotics the drum filter
is used to separate the mycelia from the fermentation liquor [11].
Drum filters are used in the bio manufacturing company Novozymes’ enzyme recovery
factories in Denmark, USA, Brazil, India and China. The size of full-scale production
drum filters ranges from around 10m2 to around 60m2 . Also in the pilot facility the drum
filters are available for process development purposes, but on a much smaller scale.
Limitations of the drum filters
Since the structure of the drum filter is open, the pressure difference that can be applied
is limited to atmospheric pressure and is in practice lower. This is a limitation as a
higher pressure would result in an increased flux and thereby a higher productivity. The
vacuum pumps are utilized at a maximum effect to achieve the highest pressure difference
possible. The fact that the drum filters need to be precoated has the consequence that
the individual drum is stopped after a certain amount of time, when it needs to be coated
by a new layer of precoat. This time depends on the speed of the knife, which again
is influenced by several characteristics of the suspension and filter cake. This will be
elaborated on later. As a consequence of the precoating operation, several drum filters
are needed to run in parallel, to keep production running and the total output of the
drums constant. It is therefore necessary to schedule the coating of the drums in such
a way, that they do not coincide and the total flow out of the drums is constant. Due
to variations in the culture broth and in how the process proceeds, this is however not
trivial. Many scenarios of the precoat and filtration operation can affect the scheduling of
the drums. The scheduling algorithm needs to be robust and adaptive to these scenarios,
Novozymes A/S Page 8 of 61
which will be described later.
1.3 Novozymes A/S
Novozymes A/S, hereafter referred to as Novozymes, is a global biotech company, which

focus relies on the research, development and production of industrial enzymes, microor-
ganisms, and biopharmaceutical ingredients [12]. Novozymes discovers enzymes in the
nature and optimizes their function to use them for the aforementioned applications. One
of the largest business areas for Novozymes is within household care, where enzymes for
laundry and dish washing detergents are produced. Another large business area is food
and beverage, where enzymes are produced to improve the quality of bread, beer and
wine and increase the nutritional content of animal feed.
Drum filtration is implemented to separate solid and liquid phases at the recovery facilities
at Novozymes throughout several production sites. As the yield of a batch is significantly
dependent on the filtration steps used in the recovery process, Novozymes desires to
operate their filtration equipment to generate the highest yield with the least downtime.
At Novozymes, four separate drum filters are installed, which runs in parallel. This work
is written in collaboration with Novozymes departments AD and BE, to schedule the
coating of multiple drums optimally, ensuring the least amount of downtime throughout
a batch filtration.
The purpose of the collaboration with Novozymes is to work with industrial production
facilities and authentic process data. The motivation stems from an interest of applying
academic knowledge about process management and operations to a practical biotech
production facility.
Problem statement and thesis plan Page 9 of 61
1.4 Problem statement and thesis plan
Small optimizations in capacity, yield or product quality can have a significant impact on
the economic viability of a process line. The focus of this project will be to understand
and optimize the strategy of the drum filtration process with regard to capacity by better
scheduling. The optimal way to run the drum process, is to have a continuous process
with constant flow. To obtain a constant flow, a good coating strategy is required to
ensure as much drum area is available at all time. Optimal drum performance can be
defined as max enzyme out of the drum/hour. Nevertheless, it is not possible to measure
this online. To be able to follow the drum performance, other measurements are used,
such as drum flux, cake thickness and NTU of the filtrate. Most of the above parameters
are at-line measurements.
The overall objective of this project/thesis is to:
”Optimize the productivity of multiple drum filtration units for enzyme recovery by imple-
menting an optimal scheduling strategy. The optimal scheduling strategy should be based
on an effective coating strategy, an optimized productivity model and ideally account for
downstream bottlenecks.”
To fulfill this goal it is necessary to complete the following tasks, scheduled in Figure 1.5:
• Gain an understanding of the drum filtration technology and the challenges of using
this method in industrial enzyme recovery
• Develop a static scheduling model for the coating of the drum filters, that decreases
downtime on the recovery line.
• Extend the static model to a dynamic model that can determine and visualize the
best coating plan from real-time parameters.
• Test the dynamic model on a batch in BE and evaluate the results.
• Develop a model that can predict the parameters for optimal productivity by online
measurements of sludge percent and cake thickness estimated by a soft sensor.
Figure 1.5: Gantt chart of project phases

Chapter 2
Theory and data collection
In this chapter filtration theory will be examined through a literature study of existing
technologies and developments in industry. It will be examined which equipment and
data is available in Novozymes recovery line and the theory and available data will be
examined for possible limitations in the implementation of a filtration scheduling model.
2.1 Drum filtration theory and modelling
The rotary vacuum drum filter is a commonly used filtration equipment for slurries with a
high solid content, which applies to most enzyme slurries. As described in section 1.2, the
drum is coated with Perlite and filters using vacuum. In Figure 2.1, the working principle
of a drum filter can be seen.
Figure 2.1: Working principal of a rotary vacuum drum filter by [11].

Drum filtration theory and modelling Page 11 of 61
The filtration cycle is initialized in the trough, where the filter cloth is below the level
of culture broth. This zone is called the cake formation zone. The suspension adheres
to the drum by vacuum. When the filter is rotated out of the liquid, the drying of the
cake begins. Liquid containing enzyme is forced through the filter and is throughout the
filtration led to the center of the drum, from where it continues to subsequent downstream
operations. Afterwards the cake is washed to release entrapped enzyme in the filter cake
to the filtrate and thereby decrease the amount of enzyme left in the cake. The cake enters
then a second vacuum drying zone where the filtrate consists mainly of water. This zone
is called the dewatering zone. Finally, the filter cake is discharged from the filter cloth by
the use of a knife that moves slowly towards the surface of the filter cloth. The surface is
thereby prepared for a new cycle with a fresh layer of precoat. From the point where the
cake is cut off only leaching combined with additional drum filtration can free the enzyme
from the sludge. This is not done in practice as the leaching requires additional valuable
capacity.
The drum filtration performance is heavily dependent on the characteristics of the filter
cake. The structure of the filter cake is determined by the permeability, porosity and
density. These parameters affect the ability for the liquid to flow through the cake. It
will also define the quality of the product with regard to (enzyme activity) and turbidity
(NTU). After the primary seperation, the amount of enzyme is desired to be as high as
possible, whereas the turbidity needs to be low to prevent bottlenecks and stops further
downstream. In Novozymes, the drum performance is improved using filter aids such
as diatomaceous earth or Perlite. These components help the filtration by increasing
permeability and porosity. Other parameters as pH, temperature, sludge %-age and the
weight of drained cake influence the performance of the filtration as well. The flocculation
and pretreatment process of the culture broth influence the drum performance as well.
The effect of these factors will be investigated later. It has earlier on been demonstrated
by Novozymes that thin cakes are the most beneficial in terms of drum capacity and yield,
as they dewater more efficiently [13]. Such cakes are best obtained by flocculation that
results in small flocs and by operating the drum filter at high rotational speed [14].
Filtration theory
Conventional filtration theory can be applied to describe and model the drum filtration
process for one rotation as the filter is reset when the cake is discharged by the knife. The
drum filtration operates a dead-end filtration in the sense that the flow of suspensions
is forced directly towards the filter cloth by vacuum. Theoretically, describing filtration
processes is done by the differential equation (2.1) that relates the time dependent volume
of the filtrate (VF ) with the applied pressure difference (∆p), the filter area (A), the filtrate
viscosity (µ) and the specific resistances for the filter cake (α) and filter media (β). k
is the concentration parameter that defines the ratio of the filter cake volume to filtrate
volume.

µ αk dV
∆p = · · VF (t) + β · (2.1)
A A dt
The specific cake resistance varies from product to product and is typically found theo-
retically in the laboratory, but can be described by Equation 2.2:
1
α= (2.2)
kρs εs
The filter equation (2.1) is derived from Darcy’s law, which is valid under the following
assumptions [8]:
1. The liquid feed is homogeneous and solid concentration is constant (Low sedimen-
tation rate)
This assumption is fair, since the cultural broth is agitated in the flocculation tank
before entering the drum filter tank, where it is then mild agitated in the trough, just
before the filtration starts.
2. The liquid feed has Newtonian behavior
Fair assumption as the cultural broth will have constant viscosity independent of
changes in surrounding circumstances, such as temperature and shear forces.
3. The cake resistance is direct proportional with the amount of filter cake
The filter cake is assumed to be incompressible. Since the pressure over the drum
filter is both relatively low and constant, this is a valid assumption.
4. Laminar flow through the filter cake and filter media The flow velocity, dynamic
viscosity and density of the cultural broth will not lead to turbulent flow through
filter cake and media, thus this is a valid assumption.
5. The filter cake forming from the broth is cut clean by the knife. In this way only a
fresh layer of precoat without any particles from the filtrate. It is adjusted by the
operators if the knife cuts cake or precoat. In some cases the knife will cut into the
precoat layer to achieve a higher flow. This assumtion is acceptable.
The filter equation in its differential form is difficult to apply to an industrial process and
is therefore of minor practical importance, but in some modes of operation in lab scale,
such as constant pressure difference or volumetric flow, the equation can be simplified
and solved for filtration parameters (e.g. specific cake resistance) that are relevant for
upscaling of the process.
In a filtration process operated at constant pressure (∆p = const), such as the drum
filtration, the maximum flow rate will be measured at the start of the filtration. For the
drum filtration it will be when the filter cloth is immersed in the culture broth. From this
point the flow rate will decrease with time due to the cake formation.
The filtrate volume obtained by one rotation can be calculated by equation Equation 2.3,
where the precoat resistance is neglected [13]:
s
2 · ∆p · f
VF = · tc · A (2.3)
r · µ · v ∗ · tc
From Equation 2.3 there are several ways to influence the filtration volume for one drum
rotation. An increased pressure across the drum will result in a higher filtrate volume, as
well as an increased area of the drum, the rotational speed, and the area available for cake
formation. The filtrate volume can also be increased by reducing the specific resistance
of the cake, the dynamic viscosity of the filtrate and the biomass fraction.
Equation 2.3 can be rearranged to obtain parameters that can be controlled by operators
in the production facility. These are parameters as immersed angle of the drum (φ) and
the speed of rotation (n). The drum flux can then be described as a function of the
operational variables by [7]:
s r
˙
VF 2∆p φ √
qF = = · · n (2.4)
A µαk 360
Equation 2.4 consists of three main factors that influence the filtration performance:
• Equipment design
The design of the equipment consists of the filter area and the filter media.
• Operating conditions
This includes the applied pressure, which will run at maximum and will be limited to
1 bar, but in practice be around 0.6 bar. The drum rotation speed can be varied from
20-40 rotations pr. hour. The level of suspension in the trough can be controlled
by operators by varying the inlet flow to the drum.
• Characteristics of the fluid/cake
The characteristics of the cake is determined both by the operations before and
during the drum filtration. In the pretreatment and flocculation tank, the viscosity
can be changed by dilution and the concentration parameter is fixed by flocculation.
As shown in Equation 2.2, the cake resistance is influenced by the density and
porosity of the cake. These factors are very much dependent on the fermentation
strain and the flocculation recipe [15]. The cake resistance can vary by orders
of magnitude, thus large capacity optimizations are achievable by improving the
characteristics of the cake.
Work has been done by A. Friis from Novozymes in 2007 to model the flux and yields of
drum filtration [16]. The theory behind this model is relevant for this project. The model
results are based on laboratory investigations and models. More information about this
work is given in section 2.4.
Following Darcy’s law, the pressure difference is proportional to the filtration rate multi-
plied by the viscosity of the filtrate and the total resistance of the filter cake and precoat:
∆p = µ · (rc + rm ) · νF (2.5)
The resistances can be expressed as:

C · VF
rc = α · rm = β · wm (2.6)
A
For the purpose of modelling, the drum can be divided in to 2 filtration zones. Zone 1 is
a pure filtration of cultural broth, which is when the drum filter is immersed in the liquid
suspension. Earlier in this section, this zone was called the cake formation zone. Zone
2 is the washing zone, where the filter cake is washed by spray water. A mathematical
model can be derived from Darcy’s law given in Equation 2.5 for zone 1:
dt αµ1 C1 µ1 β wm
= 2 V + (2.7)
dVF 1 A1 ∆p A1 ∆p
By integration of Equation 2.7 it is possible to express the filtrate volume obtained in
zone 1 as: p
−b1 + b21 + 4 a1 τ1
VF 1 = (2.8)
2 a1
where τ1 is the time constant and a1 , b1 are specific constants [s/m6 ] that are given as:
α µ C1 β µ wm
a1 = b1 = (2.9)
A21 ∆p 2 A1 ∆p
There are three unknowns: A1 , τ1 and wm from Equation 2.8. The filtration area of zone
1 is:
φ
A1 = d · L · (2.10)
360
The time constant is given by:
φ A1
τ1 = = ·n (2.11)
ω A
The immersed angle of the drum filter (φ) can be related to the level of culture broth in
the trough (h). This will be relevant for data processing later.

h
φ = 2 · arccos 1 − 2 (2.12)
d
Finally, the precoat amount (wm ) can be calculated by multiplying the defined thickness
of the precoat (hm ) and the density of the wet precoat (ρm ):
wm = hm · ρm (2.13)
The filtration volume from Equation 2.8 can be transformed to the filtration rate for zone
1: q
h f
2

A · −b1 + b1 + 4 a1 arccos 1 − 2 d π
VF 1 VF 1 · A
V̇F 1 = ⇒ ⇒ (2.14)
τ1 A1 · n 2 a1 A1 f
The capacity/flux of the drum filtration [m3 broth/m2 total drum area/h] can be estimated
from Equation 2.14 and the sludge volume, S [% of cultural broth].
V̇F 1
qF 1 = · 3600 (2.15)
(1 − S) · A
Novozymes setup and data collection Page 16 of 61
2.2 Novozymes setup and data collection
The Novozymes BE drum line consist of 4 drums setup in parallel, which will be described
in this section. The drums are part of the total filtration process as described in section 1.1,
and several streams are entering and exiting the drum filter, as can be seen in Figure 2.2.
The input and output streams are the same type for all drums, although varying in size,
but only marked up for drum 23A.
Figure 2.2: Setup of Novozymes drums in BE
Initially coating is added to all drums through the main pipes, to prepare the drums for
the filtration. Before the feed enters the drum, A130 and body feed is added to the stream.
It is seen that flow meters are present on the feed stream and the A130 stream, while the
flow of bodyfeed is regulated by a pump. During the filtration, spray water is added to
the top of the drum, which is measured by a flow meter. The outflow of sludge, cut off
by the knife, is diluted by permeate and water, before it is sent to scrap. Furthermore,
antifoam is sometimes added to the drum to assure no overflow in the trough. In the
cases using antifoam, the antifoam agents are often silicone oils or mixed oils, insoluble
at all realistic process temperatures. After the filtration, the filtrates of all four drums
are aggregated, before it is further processed in the primus.
At the time of the writing of this chapter, only one flow meter is present on the output,
which measures the total output filtrate from the four filters, but it is desired to install
a flow meter on the filtrate output on drum 23D, so that all flows for a single drum is
known.
As can be seen from the specifications for the drums in Appendix B, the filter area is 50%
larger on drums 23D and 23L compared to 23A and 23M. This results in the filtrate flow
being 50% larger as well, following equation 2.3. Only three drums are in operation at a
time, and the flow can thus vary greatly if changing from 2/3 large drums to 1/3 large
drums, as a new drum is put into operation. Even though the size of the drums vary by
50%, the drums can be operated for an equal amount of time, after they are precoated.
This is due to the total time a filter can be operated is only dependent on the knife speed
and the precoat layer, which are equal for all drums.
Several data processing tools are in use at Novozymes. PI system is a data system for
real-time operational data and is used to handle large volumes of industrial, operational
data [17]. PI stores all the process data from the operation of the drum filters, which can
be extracted via the Excel add-in PI DataLink.
LIMS, also known as laboratory information management system, is used to handle data
associated with samples, experiments laboratory workflows and instruments, to improve
the productivity and efficiency [18].
More general information about the production, such as batch sizes and fermentation
hours are stored in SAP HANA [19]. All these information tools are used in a combination
in the production at Novozymes, and data from these sites will be used in the analysis of
the drum filters.
Identification of process variables
It is important to identify the process variables for two reasons. Firstly, it is useful
to know which variables is measured in the production and thus is available for data
treatment. Secondly, the understanding of which variables the operators can manage is
important. This type of process variables are the manipulated variables (inputs), which
are the process "handles". These are directly available for the operators to manage. The
controlled variables (outputs) are the resulting variables that are indirectly controlled by
the manipulated variables. An example is the flow in to the drum filter (manipulated),
which is changed manually on the control computer by operators in BE. This will change
the level in the trough (controlled).
In Table 2.1, the manipulated and controlled process variables with regard to the drum
filtration unit is summarized:
Manipulated variables Symbol Measured Limits Unit

Total feed flow V̇F F T Online - m3 /h
Feed flow to drum V̇F F Online - m3 /h
Rotational speed n Online 0-66 1/h
Knife speed ks Online 0-220 Factor
Knife at start kp Offline - mm
Precoat amount wm Online 0-1650 kg
Flow of spray water V̇sw Online TBD m3 /h
Flow of Bodyfeed V̇B Online TBD m3 /h
Flow of A130 V̇A130 Online - m3 /h
Flow of floc. chemicals V̇f loc Online TBD m3 /h
Speed of agitator na Offline TBD 1/h
Controlled variables Symbol Measured Limits Unit

Filtrate flow out of drum V̇F Online - m3 /h
Total filtrate flow V̇F T Online - m3 /h
Knife delivery kd Online - mm/h
Level of knife kl Online 0-125 mm
Time left on filter tl Online - h
Flow of slugde V̇s Online - 3
m /h
Level in trough h Online TBD mVS
pH - Online - -
NTU - Offline - -
Cake thickness ct Offline - mm
Table 2.1: Overview of manipulated and controlled variables in the drum filtration process
Planning and scheduling models Page 19 of 61
2.3 Planning and scheduling models
In an ever-expanding global market, production planning and scheduling of operations

are important management tools on a strategic decision making level. They contribute
to fulfill the main objectives set by corporate management. The scheduling of the drums
is of huge importance to minimize downtime in the recovery, and this section will look
into existing scheduling strategies for problems of this type. Following the hierarchical
planning approach by [20], planning and scheduling can be divided into 3 subdivisions
given by Figure 2.3.
The highest level is the long-term decisions usually de-
termined by top-management following trends in the in-
dustry and market of the product.
Tactical planning is based on an intermediate time hori-
zon and is more concerned with the production planning
and the product portfolio.
Operational decisions are made on a short term and fo-
cuses on optimizing the production and the allocation of
resources on a significantly shorter period than the other Figure 2.3: Hierarchical system
levels. As the focus of this report is on a single opera-
tion within a production line, only operational planning and scheduling will be further
investigated.
In scheduling theory a number of m machines Mj (j = 1, ..., m) are available for a number
of n jobs Ji (i = 1, ..., n). Each job is allocated to one or more machines at one or more
time intervals, assembling a schedule. A schedule can have the form of a Gantt chart as
the one presented in Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.4: Example of a drum schedule with three drums running at all times.
The finishing time of a job can be described as Ci , with the cost described as fi (Ci ).
A total cost function is then created to find the optimal scheduling of the jobs. The
cost function can have the form of either equation (2.16) and (2.17) [21]. The scheduling
problem is then solved by finding a feasible solution minimizing the total cost function.
fmax (C) := max {fi (Ci ) | i = 1, . . . , n} (2.16)
X n
X
fi (C) := fi (Ci ) (2.17)
i=1
To solve the cost function, a scheduling algorithm must be developed. Based on the
framework by Méndez et al. [22], seen in Figure 2.5, several optimization approaches
are available. It is important to select the parameters carefully as these will impact
the performance of the scheduling algorithm. Thus, the parameters should be based on
production characteristics and the goal of the scheduling.
Figure 2.5: Framework for optimization models for short term scheduling by [22]
Time representation is the most important aspect of the model. If the time representa-
tion is discrete, events can only occur at predefined points in time, whereas continuous
time representation allows events to occur within any given point in the time horizon of
interest. The discrete time models divide the scheduling horizon into a finite amount of
time intervals with a set length, and events are only allowed to occur at the boundaries
of these periods. For problems of this type, the complexity is significantly reduced, as
the model would only need to be solved at the predefined points in time, simplifying the
model structure. Disadvantages to this modelling approach do arise, due to the simpli-
fication of the model. The efficiency and accuracy of the model is highly dependent on
the discretization of time. As a result, the model might create non-optimal or infeasi-
ble solutions due to the reduced solution space. However, discrete time representation
has proved to be efficient for many industrial applications, particularly problems where
the solution needs to be sufficient and not complete, to give a problem representation.
Continuous time representation can be chosen to overcome the earlier described limita-
tions. Several different approaches are available, employing a set of continuous variables
specifying event times, generating more flexible solutions. This approach to time repre-
sentation increases the complexity of the model and can thus lead to a great increase in
computational time of a feasible solution.
If the size of the independent batches is known in advance, the material balance parameter
is lots. This reduces the scheduling of the batches to allocation, reducing the complexity
as well, [23]. For network flow equations, batch sizing and allocation needs to be accounted
for, increasing the number of equations that needs to be solved.
As well as time can be represented in separate ways, events can as well. Events are
arranged to ensure that the capacity of the used resource is not exceeded. Five different
event representations were introduced by [22], where only global time intervals can apply
to discrete time representation, due to the nature of the model. For continuous time
representation the event representation selection is a bit more difficult. Global time
points are set by the optimization as the optimal events for each unit in the schedule,
and is thereby of independent sizing. Unit-specific time-events uses the optimal time
points as well, but are not consistent across the separate units. Time slots can be used on
all production units simultaneously (synchronically) or asynchronically over all units. A
precedence-based event approach is taking the order of the production into consideration
and if the precedence is immediate, allowing no pauses between batches, or general where
the pauses can exist.
The goal of the scheduling is the defining parameter for the objective function. Additional
objectives, variables or constraints can be needed to reach the desired optimization.
Prior work and experiences done by Novozymes Page 22 of 61
2.4 Prior work and experiences done by Novozymes
Several optimization solutions have been carried out on the drums at Novozymes through-
out the years. Both qualitative and quantitative experiments have been executed. These
experiments will be evaluated in this section to avoid unnecessary duplication and to
identify possible pitfalls.
In 2005, the relation between drum speed and primary yield in the filter was investigated
at Novozymes Brazil, by looking at the enzyme activity in the filter cake. Different drum
speeds were applied for a Savinase flocculated broth. The experiment had to verify if
differences in activity of the cake could be observed for different drum speeds. It was
shown that, for all other parameters at steady state, a lower drum speed improves the
extraction of Savinase enzymes present in the filter cake and thus increases the yield. It
was shown to be statistically significant on a 95% level. It was found that the activity in
the filter cake could be decreased by up to 50%, decreasing the yield loss from 7-10% to
3-5%, by reducing drum speed to 245 sec./rev. from 135 sec./rev. [24]
A 2006 study by A. Friis demonstrated the effect of recycling the sludge in drum filtration,
with little to no effect. The study added recycled sludge into the feed during drum
operation, to test the effect of decreasing the use of bodyfeed. The results showed a
significant lower flux with recycled sludge compared to normal operation with bodyfeed,
and as such this idea was not implemented on a production scale. However, the project
provided additional knowledge on the effect of decreasing bodyfeed in drum operation
and the goal of a thinner cake [25].
The idea of using a hard precoat process on the drum processes in KA was introduced
in 2007, but was scrapped due to resource allocation to another project launched at
the same time [26]. The other project investigated the possibility of replacing Perlite
with Gypsum. This project was launched to decrease the cost of precoat as Gypsum is
substantially cheaper than Perlite. The project showed promising results on a production
scale test, with a good filtration compared to a reference drum, but the supply of Gypsum
was assessed to be too unstable for full production scale implementation [27].
In 2007, a drum model was made by A. Friis for Novozymes Kalundborg, which predicted
the flux and yields on two of the drum filters in BE. The mathematical model derived was
applied to improve the understanding of the parameters affecting the drum filtration. The
model was based on laboratory experiments, knowledge on sludge binding and compared
with results from production scale experiments. The model was compared with full-scale
production data, and demonstrated that the flux could be predicted with -3% on average,
with a variation of ±16% [16].
Following the 2005 trial in Brazil, further testing of the correlation between yield and
rotation speed was performed [28]. Trials were made in DK, USA, China and Brazil, for
non flocculated fungi, flocculated fungi and flocculated bacteria. For the tested product
strains, results showed no yield correlation for non flocculated fungi, some correlation for
flocculated fungi, and clear correlation for flocculated bacteria.
A Better Practice guideline for operation and design of drum filters was made in 2008
[13]. The qualitative work was done to collect the experiences from the production in
order to suggest better practice for preparation of drums by precoating to increase the
capacity and decrease the costs and to guide the choice of better precoat materials. Also,
the better practice for the operation of drums during filtration has been described to
optimize capacity, increase yield and decrease variable costs by a reduction of water
usage, energy and filter aid. Furthermore, safety considerations for the drum filtration is
included in this work. Several studies have been gathered in Better Practice, which leads
to the following conclusions:
Precoating procedure
• It has been shown that the amount of floaters is important for perlites in order to
obtain an evenly distributed and compact precoating layer allowing for long cycle
times and low precoat consumption.
• The main impact to drum fluxes in Novozymes relates to cake resistance and not to
the resistance determined by the permeability and particle size of the precoat.
• The particle size of the precoat affects the NTU of the filtrate. Normally smaller
particles improve the visual quality of the filtrate.
Yield and capacity
• The pretreatment/flocculation affects the enzyme yield, both by physical sludge
volume and enzyme binding to the sludge. The purpose of flocculation chemicals
like aluminates is to bring particles together to form larger particles. This leads to
larger sludge volumes and therefore also larger yield losses.
• Both high capacity and yield is desired, but it is a balance. The capacity is increased
by a higher flow rate of feed into the drum trough, while the rotation speed is
elevated. This will allow more biomass to be filtrated per. hour, but will lead to a
thicker filtration cake and thereby loss of yield.
• The yield is increased by a more diluted culture broth. This will lower the sludge-%
and lower the activity of enzyme retained in the filter cake.
• Sludge binding plays a large role in the optimization of yield. The recovery of
enzyme activity from sludge can be done directly after the primary separation, but
is only done if the necessary area in production is available and if a yield gain of 4
% can be obtained. This is not done in BE.
Guidelines for drum operation

The drum filters are operated by operators. They follow a product recipe (PMD) which
is specified by the product responsible scientist. The following parameters are controlled
by operators and specified by the scientist:
• Drum flux
The drum flux should be as high and constant as possible while achieving the highest
possible yield. This is obtained by low rotation speed. It must reflect the facility’s
capacity situation and the fact that the duration of a batch should be in range of
18-24 hours as the maximum from a hygienic perspective.
• Drum speed
An allowable drum speed interval is suggested to have the most optimal filtration
and washing operation. Again, it is a balance between high yield and capacity. The
interval is set low allowing for a stable level of suspension in the drum trough.
• Precoat consumption
The consumption of precoat should be at a minimum to save money. A thin layer
of precoat is therefore suggested. A thin cake has the advantages of low resistance,
high porosity and a non-compressible cake.
• Knife speed
The speed of the knife should be as low as possible ensuring that the knife is only
accurately removing/cutting the biomass throughout the entire length of the drum.
For some products it may happen that there is a build-up in the precoat. For such
products a higher capacity can be achieved by an increased knife velocity. A way
to determine the optimal knife speed is to set all other parameters constant and
then control the speed with regard to the flux. If the flux significantly decreases,
the knife speed should be increased.
If the production gets behind schedule, the operators has the possibility to increase the
capacity in collaboration with responsible scientists. This will disregard yield and precoat
consumption. The actions is prioritised in the following way (All steps will require a
higher feed flow to the drum trough):
1. Increase drum speed.
2. Increase drum filtration temperature to the maximum allowable value from PMD
3. Addition or increasing the amount of bodyfeed
4. Increase knife speed
5. Convert a secondary drum to primary drum.
The last point is not a part of the procedure in BE, as no drums is used as a
secondary drum. A secondary drum is a drum filtration that comes after the first
drum filtration to increase the efficiency of the overall separation.
Limitations in the application of PWO Page 25 of 61
2.5 Limitations in the application of PWO
In the field of practical integration of scheduling, advanced control and their integration,
an overview is presented by [29]. It is clear that some challengers arise in the application
of scheduling and control in the collaboration between the separate layers.
The scheduling and control on plantwide operations can
be divided into three subsections. All the subsections
are part of the operational planning section in the hier-
archical system depicted in Figure 2.3. The scheduling
layer makes decisions based on the batch timing and the
assigning of equipment for the batch. The optimization
layer improves the profitability by arranging the batches
optimal and the control layer implements the real time
optimization parameters from the second layer.
For the current case at Novozymes, the control layer is Figure 2.6: Hierarchical
not very digitized, but is primarily based on operator scheduling system
handling, instead of an actual control layer. This sim-
plifies the implementation of communication between the separate computational layers,
but adds a new challenge of extracting information about the scheduling to the operators.
The control of the process is an important factor for the scheduling. The better control
by the operators, the less deviations from the nominal schedule should occur. At the be-
ginning of this project, no scheduling strategy is made before the beginning of the batch,
and the implementation of a scheduling algorithm might present some challenges. Engell
[29], states that: "A painful lesson learnt in advanced control and scheduling is that if
solutions are not accepted by the operators, they are not used in the long term, even if a
benefit could be demonstrated." Thus, it is important that the operational performance of
the scheduling is user-friendly and easy to handle.
Another important parameter for the scheduling of the drum filters is the tightness of the
schedule. If the scheduling is too tight, fluctuations in the control of the process and in
process disturbances i.e. from stream fluctuations, cannot be handled very well, and might
lead to increased downtime in the process. If the schedule on the other hand is looser and
more flexible, there is room for variations in the operation and process conditions, but
may lead to a sub-optimal operation of the filters.
Chapter 3
Current operation in Novozymes
In this chapter, the current production is investigated with respect to the performance
of the drum filters and their efficiency and downtime. Data has been pulled from the
PI system and examined through excel for different timescales, to get an overview of the
entire efficiency on the line. Furthermore, a survey of the process and interviews with the
operators are performed to get direct inputs from the production floor.
3.1 Performance of Novozymes production
The production of enzymes by Novozymes in Kalundborg runs 24 hours a day, all year.
The drum filter operation is not active in all these hours though. The amount of time
with drum filters in operation depends on the planned production on a strategic level
(See Figure 2.3) with regard to the demand from customers and the amount of stored
enzymes. The drum operation time is furthermore influenced by the production schedule
on a tactical level with regard to the product portfolio and the capacity and performance
of the fermentation department. Also the performance on the operational level affects the
active time of the drum filter, which is described later in this section.
All production data is collected and archived by the PI data system as described in
section 2.2. Every unit for measurement in the production is assigned with a "tag" in
the PI system. By the use of these tags, data can be extracted to Excel with PI Datalink
for further data treatment. The data from the production is only saved at certain points
in time, which is not necessarily equally spaced. It is then possible and necessary to
interpolate the data to gain evenly spaced data points.
The overall distribution of operational and non operational time is illustrated for all hours
in a full year in Figure 3.1. Besides the filtration time, also precoat and recycle operations
are included in the operational time.
Performance of Novozymes production Page 27 of 61
Figure 3.1: Operational and non operational time distribution for a year in the period
August 19’ to July 20’. The distribution is shown as the percentage of time where the drum
filters are in operation(marked with blue) compared to the percentage of non operational
time, where no product runs on the line(marked with orange). The black dotted line
indicates the average percentage of operational time over a year.
In Figure 3.1 it is seen that the amount of operational time varies greatly in the period
illustrated. Especially in the period from September 19’ to January 20’ the operational
time of the drum filter is significantly lower compared to the remaining month of the
year. From internal input, the lower productivity is explained by decisions made on the
strategic level in Novozymes due to the decrease of storage capacity etc. It is therefore
decided not to include data from these months in the calculation of the average percentage
of the operational time for a year. The average operational time is found to be 75%. This
means that minimum one drum filter is active 75% of the year, which corresponds to 18
hours every day. In this project, the main objective is to utilize these 18 hours of every
day production in the optimal way with regard to the capacity and the use of precoat.
In Figure 3.1, the non operational time includes both normal and abnormal idle time.
Normal (expected) idle time is planned time before harvest of the next fermentation. It
also includes cleaning and other adjustments or maintenance of the filter. This type of
planning is located at the tactical level and is therefore easy to account for in a predictive
model. Abnormal (unexpected) idle time arises if the filtration runs faster or slower than
expected which will result in moving the next batch to an earlier start time or delay the
next batch. Only in rear cases, the filtration can start earlier, if the fermentation is already
harvested. Abnormal idle time also includes time where the equipment is not ready due
to extended cleaning procedures or unexpected maintenance of the filtration units. Also

power failure, breakdown of equipment and accidents goes under this category. This type
of planning is located at the operational level and is more difficult to predict and account
for in a scheduling model.
To obtain figures that illustrate the performance of Novozymes production in a descriptive
way, it is desired to work with data for a month that acts as a good representative for a
full year. It is seen from Figure 3.1 that the month of May 20’ contains the same amount
of operational time as the average. May 20’ is assumed to represent the full year and is
chosen for further data treatment. The utilization of the individual filters are investigated
and shown in Figure 3.2.
(a) Operational and non operational time. (b) Split between operations.
Figure 3.2: The performance of the individual filters.
It is seen from Figure 3.2a that three of the drums, namely D, L and M, are in operation
in the same amount of time. Drum A is used a little less and is presumably the fourth
drum to be taken in to operation. In Figure 3.2b the split between filtration, precoat
and recycle operations are compared. It is seen that the filtration time corresponds to the
operational time, which confirms that drum D, L and M are used most often for filtration.
Number of drums in operation
The main goal of this project is to increase the capacity of the drum filters, ensuring
a high total flow out of the drums. This is done by applying the maximum filter area
and maximum number of drums available all the time. The following figures shows the
number of drums in filtration, where the precoat and recycle operations are not included.
Figure 3.3: Drum filters in filtration simultaneously for the month of May 20’.
Since the drums need to be recoated after a certain amount of time, it is not possible to
run the four drums continuously throughout the batch. On the other hand, it should not
be necessary to operate less than three drums simultaneously. It is therefore interesting
to investigate the distribution of the simultaneously operated drum filters. In Figure 3.3,
the number of drums in filtration at the same time is illustrated over the operational time
of January 20’. The distribution is clarified in a pie chart in Figure 3.4.
Figure 3.4: Distribution of simultaneously operated drum filters in relation to Figure 3.3
In 18% of the operational time, the number of drum filters in filtration is less than three.
This corresponds to around 82 hours out of 454 hours of operational time in May 20’.
It is also noticed, that four filters is in operation in the same amount of time as three
drum filters. An advantage of four drum filters in operation is, that the desired capacity
can be reached with less effective filters. The disadvantage is a higher total consumption
of precoat when four drums is in operation compared to three. A balance between the
capacity and the consumption of precoat is the challenge when determining the optimal
number of drums in filtration.
Flow through the drum filters
It is interesting to evaluate the capacity of the drum filters with regard to flow of floc-
culated culture broth led through each filter unit. The flows of liquid to the individual
drums are illustrated in Appendix E and the average flow over the operational period for
each drum is listed in Table 3.1. The data points for the calculation of the average feed
flow is derived from May 20’ and is only included of the flow is greater than zero, meaning
that the drum is in filtration.
L D M A
Avg. flow (m /h)
3
10.1 9.2 6.5 6.4
Flow pr. area (L/h/m2 ) 186 169 178 175
Table 3.1: Feed flow of each drum based on data from May 20’
It is seen that the large drums, L and D, in average can filtrate 9-10 m3 /h, while the
two small drums, M and A, in average can filtrate around 6.5 m3 /h. The flows has been
normalized with regard to the dimensions of the individual filters. Here it is seen that
the filters perform relatively at the same level in the range 169-186 L/h/m2 , though with
drum L as the best performing drum and drum D as the worst performing drum.
So far, the average feed flow is the best performance measurement of a single drum
with regard to the capacity. The numbers in Table 3.1 will be used later for the basic
modelling work. A better measurement for each drum filters performance would be the
flow of filtrate, since this will describe the amount of liquid bound in the sludge. This
data is not yet available, but during the project, a flow meter will be installed on one
of the drums. After evaluation of this data, it will be decided if flow meters should be
installed on all four drums.
The only measurement of the filtrate flow is the total filtrate flow of the drums. The
average filtrate flow has been calculated from all the batches that have been processed
in BE in May 20’. All data points have been used including the points where the flow
is zero. The average total filtrate flow is normalized to the maximum hydraulic flow to
illustrate the potential for optimization on the flow by respecting the limit of subsequent
filtration units in the recovery line. This is illustrated in Figure 3.5.
Figure 3.5: Average VF T normalized to the maximum hydraulic flow
It is clear that there is a potential for a higher filtrate flow of the drums. As the filtration
performs in the current state, the maximum flow is only just above 70 % and the average
flow is around 60 % of the maximum filtrate flow of the four drum filters. In Figure 3.6 the
total filtrate flow of the filters is calculated with different number of filters in operation.
Figure 3.6: Average VF T by different number of drum filters in operation.
It is clear, that the magnitude of the flows are approximately proportional to the number
of filters running. The highest capacity is reached as expected by four drums in operation
simultaneously, but only 3/4 of the maximum hydraulic capacity is utilized. This indicates
that an optimization of the flow on the single filters is required to utilize the hydraulic
capacity better.
3.1.1 Efficiency of a drum filter
It is desired to express the efficiency of the individual filters with regard to the capacity
and consumption of precoat. This efficiency parameter will be notated by VCoat and have
the unit of L/kg. This value will express the volume of feed to a drum filtrated pr. mass
of precoat used.
∆VF F VF F (t + ∆t) − VF F (t)

VCoat = = (3.1)
∆wm π · L · ((rd + kl (t))2 − (rd + kl (t + ∆t))2 ) · ρp
In Equation 3.1 the feed volume is measured online and can be extracted from PI. The
term ∆wm is dependent on the difference in the level of the knife, ∆kl , and represents the
amount of precoat removed from the filter by the knife in a given time span, ∆t.
Some assumptions need to be done to work with this term. The fact that the feed flow
to the drum is applied to determine the volume through the filter, means that the part of
the feed stream, that is removed as the sludge, is not taken into account and all the feed
is assumed to be filtered. The distribution between sludge and filtrate is dependent on
the knife speed and rotation speed. It would be more legitimate to use the flow of filtrate.
The data for the flow of filtrate is not available yet, since no flow meter is installed on the
outlet of each drum. The real value for the filtrated volume is lower than the feed volume,
but the VCoat term can still be a indicator for the potential of the filtration efficiency. In
Figure 3.7 historical feed flow and precoat data has been evaluated and illustrated for a
filtration of a Termamyl batch on drum D. The resolution of the efficiency calculation can
be varied, but is fixed to 0.5h.
Figure 3.7: VCoat curve throughout filtration of a Termamyl batch (AAKA2075).

The shape of the curve in Figure 3.7 is characterized by a low efficiency of the filter in the
beginning of the filtration. After 3-4 hours the efficiency increases and reach a maximum
after 7-8 hours. In the last 4-5 hours of the filtration the efficiency decreases, which
can be caused by an increasing NTU. In the figure both the average and the maximum
efficiency is marked. The average efficiency is very much influenced by the performance
and variation of the filtration. The maximum efficiency expresses the highest reached
efficiency of the batch.
It is interesting to evaluate the potential for a efficiency variable in real time observation.
It could be a performance variable to show the operator how well the filtration is per-
forming in real time compared to the maximum reached efficiency for a given product on
a specified drum from historical data. The efficiency of the drum filters are influenced
and controlled by the operators. It will later be defined which variables the operators are
handling to affect the filtration efficiency.
The communication of this value need to be investigated. Should it be a value for the
current point of the filtration or should it be a trend line showing the efficiency of the
filtration from the start to the current point in the filtration? It is furthermore necessary to
study the consequences of the filtration performance on other parameters, if the operator
makes decisions based on the VCoat parameter. This will be discussed later.
3.1.2 Selected products for comparison
It is decided to analyze three different products with various constraints. These products
will later be used to test the scheduling tool that will be developed in chapter 4. The
products have been chosen based on their constraints as they represent a broad variety
of Novozymes’ product portfolio. The three products account for almost 16% of the total
products recovered in BE. This means that almost every sixth product that is processed
in BE is one of the following three products:
• Termamyl Classic - AA
Limited on the flow to Primus
• BAN - AD
Limited on the flow through pipes as all other products
• AMG - NA
Limited on the flow through the ultrafiltration unit
Process and operator survey Page 34 of 61
3.2 Process and operator survey
An industrial survey by Bähner from 2019 examined nine plants in the process industry,
whereas the majority was located in Denmark, out of which six operates batch plants. The
survey showed for 9/9 plants that at least 25% of the operators had more than five years
experience. In four of the plants it was seen that more than 50% of the operators had
beyond 10 years experience [30]. The survey showed that the operators had a tendency of
being employed for long periods in the same production line, and as a result potentially
have acquired intimate knowledge about the process operation. Following this survey,
it was decided that involving the operators in the development of the scheduling model
would be beneficial for all parties. To get the best overview of the steps included in a
filtration, it was decided to follow the start-up and operation of a filtration in BE.
Process survey - Go Look See
Initially the plan is to follow the full process, which contains the start up procedure,
normal operation, recoat procedure and the end of the filtration. The purpose of this is
to gain an understanding of the full process from start to end. The purpose is furthermore
to observe the degree to which the operators interfere with the process.
The observation of a start up procedure and normal operation was planned and completed
on 08/09-2020, where a recovery of a protease fermentation was initiated. Following a
recoat procedure and the end of filtration was not completed, due to it being deemed
too time consuming with respect to the expected output. The observation began just
before the start of the filtration. Three of the four drums were precoated and ready to
run. The last drum, which was one of the large drum filters, was taken out of operation
as the filter cloth were under maintenance and needed to be changed. This is one of
the unexpected maintenance events that will lead to a longer total filtration time. Two
operators were present at the start of the filtration. Both were relatively inexperienced
with only seven months and one year in the drum filter operation. At start of filtration, a
discrepancy between the operators were noticed as one recommended to start on all three
available drums and the other operator wanted to start on only two drum filters. It was
decided to go with the last suggestion. The filtration was started on a small and a large
drum, which is standard procedure according to Better Practice [13]. The third drum was
started after about 15 minutes, when the two operating drums were stable with regard
to the addition of flocculation chemicals, pH and the level in the trough. The operators
controlled the capacity and efficiency of the drum filters by six process variables: Flow of
culture broth into the trough, rotation speed of the drum, speed of knife, and addition
of bodyfeed (filter aid), A130 (thickening fluid) and spray water. The scheduling of the
drum filters is performed on the floor by operators. Based on the observations of this Go
Look See session and the inputs given from the operators on duty, an idea of having more
input from operators arose. An outline of the operation steps performed during start-up
of the drum filters is seen in Appendix C. After the drums has been put into operation
their performance is continuously reviewed and optimized by the operators, following the
procedure in Figure 3.8.
Figure 3.8: Operating procedure of the drum filters
Purpose of operator survey

Following the observations on the production line, showing a discrepancy in the start-up
of the process between different operators, further inputs were needed. This led to a
desire of interviewing a greater part of the operators, to identify possible variations in
the start-up procedure. The interview will furthermore give inputs from operators to the
development of a scheduling tool. There will be questions about frequent challenges that
occur during the filtration and suggestions from the operator about manual operations
that could be automatized for the benefit of both the operator and reducing the process
variations.
Procedure
In coordination with the team leaders of the production line, interviews of the operators
handling the drum filtration process has been performed. At first the operators were
asked about their level of experience on the drum filters as well as their experience on the
BE recovery line. The operators were furthermore asked:
• Describe the start up of the drum filters.
• What do you see as the most frequent challenges when operating the drum line?
• How do you assess if a new drum should be put into operation?
• What is the potential of implementing a scheduling tool, for better operation of the
drums?
• Other ideas for optimizing the operation of the drum filters?

The interviews were held as an open conversation, but the full questionnaire seen in
Appendix D, was used as a guideline.
Results
8 operators were interviewed in the survey. Their answers are anonymous and as such the
individual replies are not included in the report. Instead, a summary of the most frequent
and significant views are presented in this section. The operators has been split based on
their experience in 3 categories. It takes 4 years for the operators to be fully educated in
the recovery line at BE. The splits are set after 2 years at the recovery line, and after 4
years at the line, and a summary is seen in Table 3.2.
Time at Novozymes Less than 2 years 2-4 years More than 4 years
Nr. of operators 3 1 4
Table 3.2: Experience on the recovery line in BE.
Start up of the drum filters.

The operators had a very similar start-up procedure independent of their experience on
the line. The operators coated all four drums before putting the drums into operation.
After coating, 2 drums were started simultaneously, a small and a big drum. After the
set points have been reached and the pH is stable, one more drum is put into operation.
A tendency of aggressive operation of the filters were seen at start-up, and then after
an hour to an hour and a half, the operators tried to save operational costs as precoat
consumption and spray water.
Most frequent challenges
One of the most frequent challenges experienced by the operators were the sludge pumps
clogging. Furthermore, the pH-electrode needing to be re-calibrated or being covered by
flocculation. A new challenge that has arisen is the dosage applied of A130, which cannot
be controlled independently on each drum.
New drum into operation
On the computer in the production hall, the remaining time on each drum filter can be
seen. If the remaining time reaches 0.6 hours or the NTU of the filters increases drastically,
the filter is taken out for recoating. It usually takes an hour and a half to take out a drum
and recoat it. At the moment, it is a puzzle planning the operation of the drums, so the
end times do not coincide, but are separated by approximately two hours. The scheduling
of the drums is something that cannot be predicted before the drums are in operation.
Potential of a scheduling tool
The operators response to the implementation of a scheduling tool varied a lot in enthusi-
asm. Some of the operators saw a huge potential, some of them saw some potential benefit
for inexperienced operators, and even one operator saw no benefit of a scheduling tool.
The current procedure of estimating the amount of Perlite for the last drum of the batch
is not very precise, and therefore, an estimator of required precoat was desired. The op-
erators were skeptical about the practical implementation and usefulness of a scheduling
tool, due to the large variations from product to product, but also from batch to batch.
Further ideas for tools that can help production
The most frequent idea of tools that can benefit the operation of the drum filters was,
the implementation of an online NTU reader. The NTU is currently measured by manual
readings, and the response to an NTU change by the operators are reactive instead of
proactive. The implementation of a tool that can predict the yield for the given filtration
would be beneficial, as the operators do not know how good or bad the filtration ran until
two weeks after end time. A camera that shows if the knife is scraping of material would
help keeping a better overview as well.
Based on the evaluation of the production data and the interviews performed, an incon-
sistency in the idea of how efficient the drum filters are running is seen. It was seen that
the filtration on average runs on 2 filters or less for up to 18% of the time. Therefore, it
as assumed that a scheduling tool will benefit the operation, even though some pushback
was experienced from the operators. Since no scheduling tool has been used in the pro-
duction before, the value of such a tool might be more beneficial than at first perceived
by the operators. It is therefore decided to continue the development of a scheduling tool
to minimize the filtration time where 2 or less drum filters are in operation.
Chapter 4
Static scheduling model
In this chapter a static scheduling model is developed. It is denoted static, since the
scheduling model output is a suggested coating strategy for the four drum filters at one
point in time (t=0). Later in the project the scheduling model will be extended to a
dynamic scheduling model, as it needs to be able to reschedule the suggested coating
strategy at any point in the filtration process, though with a certain time interval.
4.1 Objectives and constraints
For the scheduling strategy of the drum filters, two objectives are important. In this
section they are ranked, to prioritize the most important parameter prior to the secondary
objective.
The purpose of the scheduling model is to utilize the four filtration units optimally. The
most important aspect of the scheduling algorithm is therefore to maximize the capacity
on the line. The capacity is maximised by ensuring the maximum filtration area available
at all times. This is done by always having a precoated drum filter ready for operation,
when another drum filter need to be taken out due to low thickness of the precoat layer.
The second objective is to minimize the consumption of precoat for a given batch. As by
the feedback from the operators, there is indeed a potential of minimizing the consumption
of precoat in the end of the batch. After the interviews of the operators, it is known that
more precoat of the drum filter for the last amount of cultural broth is applied to the filter
cloth than theoretical needed to ensure a complete filtration. This is done to prevent a
situation, where a new drum filter is needed to separate the last amount of enzyme.
Objectives and constraints Page 39 of 61
Notation Type of variable Description

jit Binary Equals 1 if the drum i is in filtration at time t
cti Binary Equals 1 if drum i is precoating at time t
VF F i Continuous The feed flow to drum i
Vlef t Continuous The total volume left of the filtration
T Discrete The number of time steps
wmi Continuous The amount of precoat applied to drum i
W (1) Coefficient The approximated cost of one hour of filtration
W (2) Coefficient The approximated cost of 1 kg of Perlite
Table 4.1: Notation of variables in the static model
The objectives for the model can be summed up to be:

1. Increasing filtration capacity
• Minimum total filtration time
2. Reduce operational costs
• Minimize the amount of precoat used in production
Following the framework in Figure 2.5, a discrete time representation is used, as this
is deemed sufficient for the scheduling. This entails that drums can only be put into
and taken out of operation at certain points in time. The model uses network flow
equations and global time intervals. The model considers the filtration through I drums,
I = {1, 2, .., I}, during a scheduling horizon of T discrete time steps T = {1, 2, .., T }.
The cost function has to minimize the total filtration time. The total filtration time can
be described by (4.1):
 
Vlef t
(4.1)
 
min(ttot ) = min  
 PT P4 V̇F F i · jit 
t=0 i=1
T
The total amount of precoat used should be minimized. The total amount of precoat used
for a filtration is minimized by (4.2):
T X
4
!
X
min (wtot ) = min wmi · cti (4.2)
t=0 i=1
In order to minimize both the total filtration time and the precoat consumption, the
objective function can be described by (4.3), with weights yet to be defined.
The objective function:
  
T X 4
Vlef t X
(4.3)
  t

min    · W (1) + w mi · c i · W (2)
 PT P4 V̇F F i · jit  t=0 i=1

t=0 i=1
T
Constraints:
jit , cti ∈ 0, 1 (4.4)
4
X
3≤ jit ≤ 4, for 1 ≤ t ≤ t(Vlef t ≤ Capacity) ∈ T (4.5)
i
jit 6= 1 for jit−1 = 0 ∧ jit−2 = 1 (4.6)
4
X
0≤ cti ≤ 1, ∀t ∈ T (4.7)
i
t0 ≤ t ≤ ttot (4.8)
0 ≤ Vlef t ≤ VBatch (4.9)
4
X
V̇F T = V̇F F i (4.10)
i=1
0 ≤ V̇Ft T ≤ V̇M ax , ∀t ∈ T (4.11)
0.5 h ≤ tdi ≤ tM axi , ∀i ∈ I (4.12)
The objective function (4.3) aims to minimize the total cost defined by the total
filtration time multiplied with the cost pr. hour and the total amount of perlite used
multiplied with the cost pr. kg of perlite.
Constraint (4.5) ensures that no less than 3 drums are in operation at the same time,
except for at the start-up of the filtration and when the filtration is drawing to an end.
Constraint (4.6) ensures that a drum cannot be in put into operation if it had not had
time to be cleaned and precoated again after the first time it was in operation.
Constraint (4.7) ensures that no more than 1 drum is being coated at a time.
Constraint (4.8) ensures that the filtration time is within the bounds of the actual
filtration time.
Constraint (4.11) ensures that the total flow out of the drums is not exceeding the
physical or product specific flow constraint on the production line.
Constraint (4.12) ensures that the amount of precoat used on a new drum does not
exceed the threshold value for that drum and that the drum is taken out of operation if
there is less than 30 minutes left of precoat.
Cost evaluation
In the objective function (4.3), W (1) and W (2) is multiplied to the total filtration time
and the total precoat consumption to tell the objective function, the importance of which
of the two parameter to minimize. The weights is calculated by:
$t $wm
W (1) = W (2) = (4.13)
$t + $wm $t + $wm
The cost of precoat $wm is set to be a price of 2.5 DKK/kg. This is an average price based
on SAP data and is set to be constant, as it does not fluctuate significantly in time and
between batches. The price of an hour of operation $t is, likewise, fairly constant from
batch to batch. However, the weight of the hours of operation is not solely based on the
price of an hour, but is dependent on how tight the production schedule is constructed,
which can vary greatly from batch to batch. The production schedule is constructed
by the tactical level in collaboration with the operational level from Figure 2.3, and is
not something that can be varied by the model constructed in this report. It is thus a
parameter, that will have to be set from batch to batch, dependent on how tight the
scheduling of the production line is.
Variables in model
The volume left of the batch is calculated on an ongoing basis as the size of the original
batch subtracted the already processed feed volume, as per equation (4.14).
4
Z tX
Vlef t = Vbatch − V̇F F i dt (4.14)
0 i=1
The amount of precoat added to a filter being put into operation is calculated by equation
(4.15), that accounts for the volume that has to be processed by the filter multiplied by
the knife delivery, divided by the flow handled by the filter. This is multiplied with a
factor for the kg/mm of the precoat, defined be the maximum amount of precoat on the
filter divided by the maximum distance setting of the knife.

(Vlef t − Capacity) · kdi wmaxi
wmi = · , for wmini ≤ wmi ≤ wmaxi (4.15)
VF F i kmaxi
Based on the size of the drum, the maximum amount of precoat for each drum can be
calculated by (4.16).
wmaxi = πLi · (rdi + kmax )2 − (rdi )2 · ρp (4.16)

There are three separate upper limits for the total flow out of the drums V̇max , which
depends on the product being recovered. Some products are limited by the capacity
of the ultra filtration equipment, some are limited by the capacity of the primus filter
(40m3 /h), and lastly there is a limit on the flow through the pipes from unit to unit
(48m3 /h).
V̇F T ≤ V̇max (4.17)
It is desired to have the most stable total flow out of the drum filters as possible, while
respecting the upper limits of the different products. It is inevitable to have a fluctuating
total flow out of the drums, since they contains different filtration areas. The upper
limits are not hard constraints, since a buffer tank is located after the drums, which could
account for periods with a flow higher than the upper limit. The mean total flow through
the filtration operation has to be within the upper limit, thus this is a hard constraint.
From the investigation of Novozymes current production performance, it was seen from
Figure 3.5, that there is a great potential of optimizing the total mean flow out of the
drum filters.
Variables available for operators

The manipulated variables, that are used by operators to control a single filter in BE has
been identified from the process survey to be:
• Drum speed (n)
• Knife speed (ks )
• Feed to drum (VF F )
A number of variables is not measured directly in the process, but calculated from mea-
sured variables in order to help the operators control the filtration process. As it was
found from the process and operator survey in section 3.2, the scheduling of the drum
filters before and during filtration is done by the operator(s) on duty. The main variable
that they use for this purpose is the time left on the individual drum. This parameter is
calculated in (4.18) from the level of the knife (mm), kl , and the knife delivery (mm/h),
kd .
kl
tl = (4.18)
kd
The knife delivery is dependent on the knife speed and the rotational speed by equation
(4.19).
kd = ks /500 · n (4.19)
The speed of the knife, ks , is a unitless variable ranging from 0-220 and the rotational
speed of the drum (1/h) is varying from 0-66. Both of these variables is controlled by the
operators based process limits from on the product recipe set by the process engineers.
The operators are also controlling the flow of the feed to each drum, V̇F F , which consists of
the addition of the following flows; flow of flocculation chemicals, pH adjusting chemicals,
A130, dilution liquid and the flow of the cultural broth.
Matlab implementation Page 44 of 61
4.2 Matlab implementation
The scheduling of the drums is implemented in Matlab in a script. The script utilizes
a WHILE-loop integrating the volume processed by each drum filter until the volume of
the original batch is reached. The drum filters in operation are described by index ji ,
where 1 indicates the filter being in operation, as by (4.20). For each time step in the
WHILE-loop, the j-vector is stored in a p-matrix, used later to show when the individual
drums are in operation.

1 if drum is operational
ji = for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 (4.20)
0 if drum is non operational
The script initialises the operation by coating the drums to a predefined layer of precoat,
which is then converted to operational time by equation (4.18). This is afterwards con-
verted to number of time steps tdi by equation (4.21), where m is the discretization of
hours, i.e. if m=2 half hour time steps are used.
tdi = tl /m (4.21)
The number of time steps left on each drum is then decreased by each iteration, until a
lower limit of 30 minutes is reached. Afterwards, the drum is taken out of operation. If a
drum is available and had had time to be cleaned and recoated, it is put into operation.
The amount of precoat used for this drum is defined by the capacity left on the drums
still in operation, Clef t , the capacity pr. time step of the new drum V̇i , and the volume
left of the batch, Vlef t . The capacity of each drum pr. time step is given by (4.22).
12m3 /h
V̇i = 0 ≤ x ≤ for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 (4.22)
m
The capacity left on the drums in operation is given by equation (4.23).

4
X
Clef t = (tdi · V̇i ) (4.23)
i=1
A new drum is only put into operation if Vlef t > Clef t

If the capacity of the drums in operation and the maximum capacity of the next three
drums put into operation does not exceed the volume left of the batch, the precoat layer
of the new drum put into operation is set to be the maximum precoat layer.
After the WHILE-loop has ended, the values in the p-matrix are plotted as a Gantt chart
as seen in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1: Matlab implementation of the static scheduling model with no limitations for
output capacity for an initial batchsize of 800 m3
The recoating of the drums is implemented for all drums going into operation again after
depletion of precoat. As the static scheduling model at first looks promising, challenges
arise at some values for the batch size. Figure 4.1 is simulated with an initial batch size
of 800 m3 . For an initial batch size of 600 m3 , the schedule in Figure 4.2 is created. Even
though the entire batch is filtered, this is not optimal, due to the long period in the end
of the filtration, where only one filter is in operation.
Figure 4.2: Matlab implementation of the static scheduling model with no limitations for
output capacity for an initial batchsize of 600 m3
4.2.1 Increasing robustness and complexity of model
In the previous figures two challenges can arise. As described earlier it is desired to respect
the limit of the flow through the production line. The first challenge is that the flow can
be too high during the filtration, when four drums are applied. The second challenge is if
the drums are not finishing at the same time, this will lead to a longer filtration time and
also a lower flow in the end of the filtration if only one or two filters are in operation.
Following the sub optimal scheduling in Figure 4.2, a function for coating of the last three
drums in filtration has been set up. If equation (4.24) is true, the precoat layer of the new
drum put into operation is not set to maximum, as it is desired to have the same ending
time for all drums, with no amount of perlite going to waste. The index of the drums and
the volume flows indicates the order of the drums being put into operation in the end of
the filtration. The subtraction of 2 · m is to account for the two hours where the drums
are being recoated.
Vleft − Clef t ≤ td1max · V̇1 + (td2max − 2 · m) · V̇2 + (td3max − 2 · m) · V̇3 (4.24)
It is desired to obtain the equality seen in (4.24), by varying td1 , td2 and td3 .
0 = Vlef t − Clef t − td1 · V̇1 − td2 · V̇2 − td3 · V̇3 (4.25)
Following equation (4.25), the amount of precoat for the drum being put into operation
is calculated by equation
Vlef t − Clef t − td2 · V̇2 − td3 · V̇3

td1 = (4.26)
V̇1
Equation (4.26) is solved in Matlab using fmincon, with the constraints seen in (4.27) and
(4.28).
td1 ≥ td2 − 2 · m ≥ td3 − 2 · m (4.27)
td1min ≤ td1 ≤ td1max td2min ≤ td2 ≤ td2max td3min ≤ td3 ≤ td3max (4.28)
After this drum has been put into operation, equation (4.24)-(4.28), is recalculated for
the next drum with td3 = 0 and V˙3 = 0.
The other challenge that can occur during a filtration is, as previously described, if the
output flow of the drums are above the limits described in subsection 3.1.2. This is
obtained by the constraint (4.11), ensuring that it is not evaluated if a new drum can be
put into operation if the output flow is going to exceed the limit of the system.
Optimal vs. historical schedule Page 47 of 61
4.3 Optimal vs. historical schedule
At this point, it is possible to predict an optimal plan based on the average values of
the operational parameters for a given product. It would be interesting to compare the
historical schedule, showing how the filtration progressed in reality, with the schedule
predicted from the static scheduling model introduced in this chapter.
4.3.1 Data for comparison optimal and historical schedule
The average values for the following parameters used in the particular batch is needed for
the comparison.
• Average feed flow to each drum (V̇F F )
• Average knife delivery (kd )
• Total feed volume to the drums (VBatch )
The three representative products introduced in subsection 3.1.2 are used for this com-
parison. The average values for the last batch of each product is calculated in Excel using
PI Datalink and summarized in Table 3.1:
Knife delivery (mm/h) Feed flow (m3 /h) Total volume (m3 )
A M D L A M D L
AAKA2075 8.4 8.8 7.5 7.5 7.2 8.5 12.3 11.9 625
ADKA1172 9.1 8.0 9.2 9.0 6.8 6.7 9.5 9.4 733
AWKA0223 7.9 9.0 10.5 9.5 8.7 7.5 12.9 13.3 679
Table 4.2: Average values for the last batch of the three selected products: Termamyl
AA, BAN AD and AMG NA used as input the static scheduling model. The last batch
has been chosen where all four drums are in operation and no large disturbance to the
operation occurred.
The optimal plan is developed based on the average values for the parameters listed in
Table 4.2. It is thereby assumed that the filtration proceeds with constant values of knife
delivery and feed flow, which in reality is not true. The advantage of a filtration with
more or less fixed parameters is lower variation. This is the reason for a comparison of
the filtration time and precoat consumption for a filtration with fixed parameters with
results of the historical filtration, where the parameters are not fixed. The effect and
magnitude of the variation in the scheduling parameters will be discussed and illustrated
in a subsequent section.
The total volume in the last column of Table 4.2 is calculated by the sum of all volumes
to the drums measured before the flow meter of the feed to each drum:
VBatch = VF erm + VDilu + VpH + VF loc (4.29)
Accumulative measurements are extracted directly from PI for both the volume of cultural
broth, VF erm , and the volume of dilution, VDilu . The total volume of pH adjustment
chemicals, VpH , and flocculation chemicals, VF loc , are estimated by
VpH = V̇pH,mean · ttot (4.30)
VF loc = VCaCl2 + VGC850 + VA130 + V̇P olycat,mean · ttot (4.31)
The configuration of the drums in operation in the beginning of the filtration is fixed to
be equal to that of the historical filtration.
Using the same visualization code as developed for the model, the historical operation
of the filters in BE has been visualized for the three batches seen in Table 4.2. Batch
AA2075 is seen in Figure 4.3. It is seen that the filtration ends after 21 hours, and that
for all times three filters are in operation, with four filters in operation from seven to 10.5
hours into the filtration. This should secure a stable total output flow of the filters.
Figure 4.3: Overview of the filtration of AAKA2075 on the actual production line
The optimal plan for the batch AAKA2075, is scheduled in Figure 4.4 based on the
filtration model, with no constraints for the output flow.
Figure 4.4: Optimal scheduling of the filtration of AAKA2075 with the same starting
configuration as the actual filtration
In Figure 4.4, it is seen that there is 3 drums in operation through the entire filtration
except for the last hour, as it was seen for the historical filtration in BE. Furthermore, it is
seen that the end time on the filtration is 20 hours instead of 21 hours, as it took the the
historical filtration. The model was simulated with the average flow and knife speed for
each drum, with the values from Table 4.2, so the data should correspond with real-time
values. A longer lifespan of the first filtration on drum A, D and L in Figure 4.3 is due
to a significantly higher value on knife speed the second time the filter is in operation,
which increases the average value for the knife speed used in the model.
It is seen that the time spent on cleaning and recoating of a drum varies greatly in the
historical filtration. This is dependent on the thickness of precoat applied to the drum
and the availability and effectiveness of the operator. Based on the interviews with the
operators, the amount of time needed for cleaning and recoating of the drums is set to be
2 hours, independent on the amount of precoat used.
It is seen that the order and estimated lifespan of the drums, as well as the time of
startup of a new drum is very similar to the historical data. This shows that the current
scheduling of the drums handled by the operators are not that far from optimal.
The lowest total filtration time for the batch might be reached by using a different con-
figuration for which drums the filtration should start on. This will be investigated in
chapter 5.
The historical filtration of ADKA and AWKA is also compared to the schedules predicted
by the model. The filtration in BE of batch ADKA1172 and AWKA0223 is seen in
Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.7, respectively. The average values for flows and knife delivery
from Table 4.2 is implemented for the model in Figure 4.6 and Figure 4.8.
For both ADKA and AWKA, the same tendency as for AAKA is seen, when looking at
the lifespan and the order of the drums. It is seen that the same total filtration time
is expected for the ADKA in the model, Figure 4.6, as the total filtration time in the
historical data, Figure 4.5, even though the model predicts a tighter scheduling of the
drums. This is due to the historical batch running on the large drum L, for a longer time
than what is predicted by the model.
The historical data for AWKA, Figure 4.7, shows a large amount of downtime on drumD,
which results in the filtration running on three filters for most of the time and only two
filters at certain points. This results in a larger filtration time than the one predicted by
the model.
Figure 4.5: Overview of the filtration of ADKA1172 on the actual production line
The optimal plan for the batch ADKA1172, is scheduled in Figure 4.6 based on the
Figure 4.6: Optimal scheduling of the filtration of ADKA1172 with the same starting
Figure 4.7: Overview of the filtration of AWKA0223 on the actual production line
The optimal plan for the batch AWKA0223, is scheduled in Figure 4.8 based on the
Figure 4.8: Optimal scheduling of the filtration of AWKA0223 with the same starting
The results from the comparison between the filtration schedule from the static model
and from historical data are summarized in Table 4.3.
Model analysis Page 53 of 61
Filtration time (hours)

Optimal Historical
AAKA2075 20.0 20.9
ADKA1172 28.0 28.0
AWKA0223 21.0 22.5
Table 4.3: Comparison of the filtration time obtained from the optimal schedule from the
static scheduling model and historical schedule for the last batch of the three selected
products.
The filtration times of the last batch of the three selected products, listed in Table 4.3, are
very close to each other, which makes sense as the average values for the parameters used
in the particular filtrations are used and that fact that scheduling done by operators are
close to the schedule predicted by the static scheduling model. In the case of AWKA0223,
the small deviation in the filtration time is caused by the non operational time of almost
15 hours on drum D.
It would be meaningful to include the consumption of precoat calculated from the static
scheduling model and the actual precoat use from historical data in Table 4.3. In that way,
both the filtration time and precoat could be compared in compliance with the objectives
described in section 4.1.
4.4 Model analysis
The static scheduling model has limitations, that complicates the development of a real-
istic schedule for the drum filtration. In the schedules completed until this point, mean
values for the process parameters have been used. This is an uncertain assumption, as all
parameters used in the static model are changing during the filtration. The knife delivery
and feed flow to the drums are manipulated variables directly controlled by the operators.
The predicted volume of the batch varies throughout the filtration as it is influenced by
the pH adjusting chemicals, flocculation chemicals etc. controlled by the operators.
The duration of the precoating sequence is fixed to be 2 hours uninfluenced by the amount
of precoat needed for the next filtration. This deviates from the procedure performed by
operators that strives to minimize the precoat needed for the remaining filtration volume.
The starting configuration of the drums is set equal to the starting configuration of the
investigated batch. In chapter 5 the four scenarios of the starting configuration is inves-
tigated in terms of which results in the shortest filtration time and which has the lowest
precoat consumption.
Chapter 5
Dynamic Scheduling model
In this chapter, the static model developed in chapter 4, is further developed to schedule
the optimal plan for the remaining part of a filtration in operation. This extension is based
on process parameters and called the dynamic scheduling model. Initially, the model is
extended by calculating the optimal starting configuration of the drums based on either
process time or use of precoat as defined by the cost function in (4.3). The dynamic model
will be further developed with the functionality of planning the rest of a filtration, for
an already running filtration, based on set points for the product. Lastly, the model will
include an uncertainty parameter based on a confidence interval for the predicted endtime
of the filtration. This will be based on upper and lower limits defined by the expected
variation of the set point parameters implemented in the set point model.
5.1 Optimal starting configuration
Based on the interviews with the operators, usually a large and a small drum is put into
operation at the beginning of a filtration. This leads to four different starting configura-
tions for the start up of the drums. If the process is stabilized further, the startup of the
drums might initialize three drums at the start of the filtration, but this still only creates
4 different starting configurations. At the moment the 4 starting configurations are:
• Drum A and drum D

• Drum A and drum L
• Drum M and drum D
• Drum M and drum L
As the lifespan of the drums are not identical for drums of equal size, and not propor-
tional to the size of the drums, the starting configuration of the drums can influence the
Optimal starting configuration Page 55 of 61
scheduling of the drums significantly.

It is desired to run all four starting configurations in the model, and then isolate the two
cases creating the minimum total filtration time, and the minimum use of precoat. These
two objectives, as was previously described as a single objective in the cost function (4.3)
are separated, to see if the amount of precoat can be minimized when there is room in
the batch planning.
The schedule predicted in Figure 4.8 has an estimated amount of precoat of 8.28 tons. If
the starting configuration is changed to be startup of drum M and drum D, the schedule
in Figure 5.1
Figure 5.1: Optimal scheduling of the filtration of AWKA0223 with starting configuration
of drum M and drum D
If the filtration is started on drum M and drum D, and the schedule in Figure 5.1 had
been followed, the total filtration time would have been 22 hours, and thus 1 hour more
than for the starting configuration in Figure 4.8. However, the total amount of precoat
used for this configuration is estimated to 7.78 tons of perlite, and thus 500 kg less than
for an initial startup on drum M and drum L.
The trade-off between minimizing process time versus minimum amount of precoat is a
difficult trade off, that depends on how tight the batch planning is on the recovery line
on the given day of the filtration.
Set point model Page 56 of 61
5.2 Set point model
When the optimal starting configuration has been chosen, the setup scheduling model
can be used for the prediction of the remaining part of the filtration. The schedule of the
filtration is based on set points for the parameters used in the model. These set points is
defined as the average values of the last 5 batches for each product.
Knife delivery (mm/h) Feed flow (m3 /h)

A M D L A M D L
Termamyl AA 8.7 8.9 8.8 9.7 7.8 8.5 13.2 11.2
BAN AD 9.6 8.4 9.4 9.3 8.6 7.0 13.0 12.6
Novamyl AW 7.5 7.6 8.1 7.4 8.5 7.7 11.6 12.7
Table 5.1: Set points used for dynamic scheduling model
The philosophy of using the average values for the last 5 batches as set point for the dy-
namic scheduling model is that probability of predicting a realistic plan for the remaining
filtration is reasonably high. The scheduling model becomes dynamic should use the cur-
rent level of the knife and the remaining filtration volume as inputs to predict the optimal
schedule. The level of the knife, kl , is directly pulled from PI, whereas the volume left of
the filtration becomes an estimate based on the values of the volumes and flows described
in equation (4.29)-(4.31).
4
Z tX
V̂lef t = V̂Batch − V̇F F i dt (5.1)
0 i=1
The total volume of the filtration is an estimate during the filtration, since the flow of
chemicals for pH adjustment and flocculation are changed over the filtration period.
5.3 Uncertainty model
As mentioned earlier, the values for the process parameters as knife delivery and feed flow
is changing during the filtration. An uncertainty model for the dynamic scheduling can
be developed by the knowledge of lower and upper limits for the process parameters. The
schedule based on an uncertainty analysis will give the operator a better idea of which
interval in time that the filtration will end if the process is operated with the manipulated
variables within the limits. The concept of the uncertainty scheduling model is shown in
Figure 5.2 and Figure 5.3.
Uncertainty model Page 57 of 61
Figure 5.2: Schedule at the beginning of a filtration of AWKA0223 with uncertainty

interval of 2 hours
The uncertainty interval decreases with the filtration time as the volume left for filtration
decreases and the probability for unexpected events during the filtration decreases. The
two figures is included to illustrate the concept of the uncertainty scheduling model.
Figure 5.3: Schedule after 5 hours of filtration of batch AWKA0223 with uncertainty
interval of 1 hour
Chapter 6
Testing the model
The dynamic scheduling model developed in chapter 5 is tested on the production line in
BE in this chapter. It has been decided to test the dynamic set point model on one or
more Novamyl AW batch. Three batches are planned to be recovered in BE during the
testing period of this project (16/11-1/12).
Date & time

AWKA0224 17/11 - 05:00
AWKA0225 19/11 - 14:00
AWKA0226 30/11 - 20:00
Table 6.1: Batches for testing the dynamic scheduling tool
Three batch tests are estimated to be sufficient to both improve and evaluate the schedul-
ing tool.
Chapter 7
Single filter analysis
Parallel with the optimal scheduling problem, the performance of the individual filters
are investigated.
7.0.1 Efficiency of a single filter
In subsection 3.1.1 the efficiency parameter, VCoat , was introduced. The data for the last
five batches of the selected products listed in chapter 3 has been pulled from PI and
analyzed in Excel. The following table has been set up for each batch:
Unit D L M A
Average L/kg 128 130 88 117
Maximum L/kg 176 196 227 195
Coat to drum kg 1650 1550 1150 850
Coat removed kg 1650 1485 1007 764
Coat use % 100 96 88 90
Table 7.1: Efficiency data for the last batch of Termamyl including the consumptions of
precoat
Both the average and maximum filtration efficiency is shown in Table 7.1. Also the
amount of precoat applied to the filter before the filtration has been calculated together
with the amount used in the filtration to evaluate the amount of precoat that is wasted.
The row with the values for the maximum filtration efficiency is marked with grey, since
these will be used to express the highest achievable efficiency for exactly this product a
given drum. These values has been evaluated for the 5 last batches of the three products
and summarized in Table 7.2:
Page 60 of 61
D L M A
Termamyl AA 155 185 196 145
BAN AD 122 138 170 119
AMG NA* 92 113 123 114
Table 7.2: The maximum efficiency, VCoat (L/kg), for the last 5 batches on each drum.
*This row will be changed to Novamyl AW*
In subsection 3.1.1 the procedure behind the calculation of the values in table 7.1 and
7.2 is given. The density has been calculated for each batch, since the amount of precoat
added to the filter and the level of the knife at start varies from filtration to filtration.
The density of the precoat layer is calculated from the rearrangement of (4.16) by the use
of the drum dimensions:
wm
ρp = (7.1)
π · L · ((rd + kp )2 − rd2 )
Is is seen from Table 7.2 that Termamyl AA has the highest efficiency potential for the
last 5 batches ranging from 145 to 196 L/kg for the four drum filters. As of now the lowest
efficiency potential is found for AMG NA ranging from 92 to 123 L/kg. It is drum M that
reaches the highest average efficiency level, whereas drum D performs worst of the four
drums. The efficiency number is not only a result of the performance of the individual
drum, but also the limitation of the flow further downstream the recovery process. As
described in 3.1.2, AMG NA has a bottleneck in the ultrafiltration unit, which affects
the flow through the drum filters and thereby the efficiency parameter, VCoat . Since the
performance scale is dependent on both the product and drum in operation, an unitless
performance coefficient is defined:
VCoat,actual
%P erf ormance = (7.2)
VCoat,max
The performance coefficient can be calculated at any point in time during the filtration
from real time parameters. How the result should be presented to the operator can be
discussed, but one method could be to show the value, which a coloured background to
illustrate, if the performance is good or bad at the current state.
Drum efficiency (%) 91

Product Drum Current (L/kg) Potential (L/kg)
BAN AD A 109 119,20
Table 7.3: Example of a method to show the operator the current performance of a drum
filtration of a given product.
Page 61 of 61
7.0.2 Volume balance for a single filter
For a single drum filter, the volume balance can be set up. The flow entering the drum, in
terms of feed flow, spray water and body feed must equal the filtrate flow and the sludge
flow out of the drum.
V̇F F + V̇sw + V̇B = V̇F + V̇s (7.3)
.
The data of the filtrate flow, V̇F , for each drum is not collected in BE at the current state.
The other parameters in the volume balance is measured in the production facility and
can be evaluated from PI. As a part of a pilot project related to this project, a flow meter
is installed at the outlet of drum filter 23D. The output of this measurement is shown in
Figure 7.1.
Figure 7.1: Filtrate flow out of drum filter 23D for a Termamyl batch (AAKA2075)
From the first look on the filtrate flow curve, it is clear that the data is very inconsistent
throughout the filtration of Termamyl. The flow meter is located after a buffer tank,
where the level of filtrate varies during the filtration. This means that the flow out of
23D is not equal to the flow out of the buffer tank. The level in the buffer tank is not
measured, thus the real filtrate flow is not obtainable. It is possible to smooth out the
curve to get the trend of the filtrate flow, but this will not be sufficient to close the volume
balance unfortunately.
Nomenclature
$t Cost of one hour of filtration
$wm Cost of one kg of precoat
α Specific cake resistance
β Resistance of the filtration media
∆p Pressure difference across filter
V̇F F T Total feed flow
V̇F F Flow of feed
V̇F T Total flow of filtrate
V̇F Flow of filtrate
V̇sw Flow of spraywater
V̇s Flow of sludge
µ Dynamic viscosity of the filtrate
νF General filtration rate
ω Rotation speed in radiance
φ Immersion angle of drum
ρp Density of precoat
A Total filtration area
C Concentration of solids in culture broth
ct Cake thickness
Nomenclature Page II of X
d Diameter of the drum filter
f Fraction of a cycle available for cake formation
h Level of culture broth in trough
i Drum index, A, D L or M
k Ratio for filter cake volume to filtrate volume
kd Knife delivery
ks Knife speed
L Length of the drum filter
n Drum rotation speed
pe Precoat layer at end
ps Precoat layer at start
pt Precoat layer thickness
qF Flow velocity of filtration
r Total resistance of the filter medium
rc Resistance of the filter cake
rd Radius of drum filter
rm Resistance of the precoat
tc Time needed for one drum revolution
te End time of drum
ts Start time of drum
v∗ Biomass volume per unit of filtrate volume
Vf Filtrate volume obtained by one drum evolution
Vbatch Volume of batch
W (1) Weight of one hour of filtration
W (2) Weight of one kg of precoat
wm Amount of precoat
Bibliography
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[10] JX Filtration. "Vacuum Rotary Drum Pre-Coating Filter".
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Visited 11/Sep/2020.
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[11] Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. "Rotary vacuum-drum filter".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_vacuum-drum_filter. Visited
11/Sep/2020.
[12] Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. "Novozymes".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novozymes. Visited 11/Sep/2020.
[13] RLO. “Better Practice for Design and Operation of Drum filters.” Internal
document at Novozymes. 2007.
[14] SIAS. “Getting thinner cakes”. Internal document at Novozymes. 2008.
[15] PEFP. “Drums operation and optimization training.” Internal document at
Novozymes. 2020.
[16] Anne Kirketerp Friis. “DRUM MODEL - Predict flux and yields of drum
filtration”. Internal document at Novozymes. 2007.
[17] Osisoft. "PI System is the system of record for operational data".
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[18] Illumina. "Produce reliable results more quickly". Visited 11/Sep/2020. url:
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[19] SAP. "What is SAP HANA?"
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[20] Vangelis Th Paschos. Applications of combinatorial optimization. ISTE. Hoboken,
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[23] Oskar Alvfors and Fredrik Björelind. “Optimization of Production Scheduling in
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Appendix A
Enzyme recovery process
Figure A.1: Enzyme recovery process diagram

Appendix B
Dimensions of the filter drums in BE

There are two different drum sizes on the line. The specifications for the drums can be
seen in Table B.1.
Drum Diameter (m) Length (m) Filter area m2

23A 3.01 3.88 36.7
23M 3.01 3.88 36.7
23D 2.90 5.95 54.2
23L 2.90 5.95 54.2
Table B.1: Drum filter specifications used in Novozymes BE

Appendix C
Enzyme recovery process
Figure C.1: Start-up procedure for drum filters

Appendix D
Questionnaire
The questionnaire used in the interviews with the operators.
• How long have you been in the recovery line at Novozymes?
• What is your experience on the drum filtration line?
• How is your procedure for the start up of the drum filters?
• What are the challenges occuring most often on the line?
• Are the solutions to the challenges evaluated?
• How do you assess if a drum needs to be taken out for recoating?
• Do you see a potential in developing and implementing a scheduling tool for the
recovery line in BE?
• Do you see any parts of the current operation that could be optimized?
• Of the current manual operations, which of them do you see a benefit of automating?
Appendix E
Flows through individual drums
Figure E.1: Feed flow of diluted and flocculated culture broth into individual drum filters.

Optimal Drum Filtration Strategy in Enzyme Recovery 06-11-20 JPR

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Technical University of Denmark

In collaboration with Novozymes A/S

Optimal Drum Filtration Strategy in

Martin Kallesøe Levy s153070

Philip Strand Martin Kallesøe Levy

1 Background and project plan 1

2 Theory and data collection 10

3 Current operation in Novozymes 26

4 Static scheduling model 38

5 Dynamic Scheduling model 54

6 Testing the model 58

7 Single filter analysis 59

A Enzyme recovery process VI

B Dimensions of the filter drums in BE VII

C Enzyme recovery process VIII

E Flows through individual drums X

Background and project plan

Figure 1.1: Function of an enzyme by [4]

Figure 1.2: Overall enzyme production

Enzymes are sensible to changes in the surrounding environment. This is parameters

1.1 Enzyme recovery

Polishing, stabilization and concentration

1.2 Conceptual drum filtration

(a) Rotary vacuum drum filter by [10].

Figure 1.4: Overview of a rotary vacuum drum filter.

which will be described later.

1.3 Novozymes A/S

Novozymes A/S, hereafter referred to as Novozymes, is a global biotech company, which

1.4 Problem statement and thesis plan

Figure 1.5: Gantt chart of project phases

Theory and data collection

2.1 Drum filtration theory and modelling

Figure 2.1: Working principal of a rotary vacuum drum filter by [11].

The resistances can be expressed as:

2.2 Novozymes setup and data collection

Figure 2.2: Setup of Novozymes drums in BE

Manipulated variables Symbol Measured Limits Unit

Controlled variables Symbol Measured Limits Unit

2.3 Planning and scheduling models

In an ever-expanding global market, production planning and scheduling of operations

fmax (C) := max {fi (Ci ) | i = 1, . . . , n} (2.16)

2.4 Prior work and experiences done by Novozymes

Guidelines for drum operation

2.5 Limitations in the application of PWO

Current operation in Novozymes

3.1 Performance of Novozymes production

to extended cleaning procedures or unexpected maintenance of the filtration units. Also

Figure 3.2: The performance of the individual filters.

Figure 3.5: Average VF T normalized to the maximum hydraulic flow

Figure 3.6: Average VF T by different number of drum filters in operation.

3.1.1 Efficiency of a drum filter

∆VF F VF F (t + ∆t) − VF F (t)

Figure 3.7: VCoat curve throughout filtration of a Termamyl batch (AAKA2075).

3.1.2 Selected products for comparison

3.2 Process and operator survey

Figure 3.8: Operating procedure of the drum filters

Purpose of operator survey

• Other ideas for optimizing the operation of the drum filters?

Table 3.2: Experience on the recovery line in BE.

Start up of the drum filters.

Static scheduling model

4.1 Objectives and constraints

Notation Type of variable Description

Table 4.1: Notation of variables in the static model