Local Bifurcations in a Nonlinear Model of a Bioreactor

This paper is partially supported by the Bulgarian Science Fund under grant Nr. DO 02– 359/2008.

We consider a nonlinear model of a continuously stirred bioreactor and study the stability of the equilibrium points with respect to practically important model parameters. We determine regions in the parameter space where the steady states undergo transcritical and Hopf bifurcations. In the latter case, the stability of the emerged limit cycles is also studied. Numerical simulations in the computer algebra system Maple are presented to illustrate the theoretical results.