Research group
“MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES”
HEAD OF GROUP:
Assoc. Prof. Ivan Simeonov SIMEONOV, PhD, E-mail: issim@microbio.bas.bg
tel: (+359 2) 979-36-14
STAFF:
Assoc. Prof. Ludmil Nikolov NIKOLOV, PhD, E-mail: vsm@biofac.uni-sofia.bg
Res. Assoc. Elena Iordanova CHORUKOVA E-mail: elena@microbio.bas.bg
Res. Assoc. Boyko Lubomirov KALCHEV, E-mail: kalchev@ microbio.bas.bg
Luben Slavchev TOMOV, E-mail: lubo_t@abv.bg
Snejanka Nikolova MIHAILOVA, E-mail: snejanka11@avb.bg
Asen Georgiev MIRKOV, E-mail: asmir@abv.bg
PhD student Yosko Petkov PETKOV, E-mail: dripetkov@yahoo.com
RESEARCH AREA:
Mathematical, neural and hybrid modelling, state and parameter estimation, optimisation and control of
microbiological processes and systems.
The main interest deals with the anaerobic digestion of single and complex organic waste from agriculture,
waste water treatment plants and food industry. Various approaches for intensification and control of these very
interesting (from ecological and energetic points of view) anaerobic microbiological processes are developed
and investigated. It is stressed on the system and mathematical approaches for their study and optimisation.
Mathematical, neural and hybrid models for optimisation of batch and fed-batch fermentation processes for the
enzyme "Superoxide dismutase" production are also of current interest.
PROJECTS:

ELECTRICAL AND HEAT ENERGY PRODUCTION FROM BIOGAS OBTAINED FROM ORGANIC
WASTE (2005). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
Grant IF-00-238/05 from the National Innovation Fund, Republic of Bulgaria.

A STUDY OF ANAEROBIC BIODEGRADATION POSSIBILITIES FOR ORGANIC WASTE ON
BOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (2006). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
IM-BAS – IMBP-Moscow, Russia.

ECONET (2006). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
IM-BAS – University of Lille, France.

HYBRID MODELLING AND CONTROL OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF ORGANIC WASTES
FROM FARMING (2002-2005). Project leader: E. Chorukova, MSc
Grant MU-MI-1603/2006 from the National Fund for Scientific Research, Republic of Bulgaria.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR PRODUCTION OF HEAT AND ELECTRIC
POWER FROM ORGANIC WASTES FOR INCREASING THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF THE
FINAL PRODUCTS (2005). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
Grant NTE-5-1/2005, National Scientific Program “New Technologies in Energetics”, Republic of
Bulgaria.

MODELING AND OPTIMISATION OF THE METHANE FERMENTATION OF COMPLEX
MIXTURES OF ORGANIC WASTE (2000-2003). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
Grant TN-1004/00 from the National Fund for Scientific Research, Republic of Bulgaria.

MODELLING AND OPTIMIZATION OF A BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR OBTAINING
THE ENZYME SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE WITH THE INSTRUMENT OF ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
NETWORKS (2002-2005). Project leader: E. Chorukova, MSc
Grant MU-I-1201/02 from the National Fund for Scientific Research, Republic of Bulgaria.

MODELING AND CONTROL OF THE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF ORGANIC WASTE IN A
CASCADE OF BIOREACTORS (2004). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
Grant TN-1412/04 from the National Fund for Scientific Research, Republic of Bulgaria.

MODELING, OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES (20002005). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
IM-BAS – University of Marseilles, France.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING, IDENTIFICATION AND OPTIMAL EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IN
ANAEROBIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT (2002-2004). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
IM-BAS – Department of mathematics of the University of Turku, Finland.

MODELING AND CONTROL OF THE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF ORGANIC WASTE IN A
CASCADE OF BIOREACTORS (2003-2006). Project leader: I. Simeonov, PhD
IM-BAS – LSS-CNRS, France.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
1. Simeonov, I., I. Queinnec, Linearizing control of the anaerobic digestion. Control Engineering Practice, 14,
2006, 799-810.
2. Simeonov, I., D. Denchev, B. Baykov, Development of new technologies for production of heat and
electric power from organic wastes for increasing the economic efficiency of the final products. Advances
in Bulgarian science, 1, 2006, 15-25.
3. Mirkov, A., Bulgarian experience for industrial biogas production from catles wastes, Ecological
engineering and environment protection, 3-4, 2005, 114-118 (in Bulgarian).
4. Nikolov, L., Peculiarities of the research organization in bioprocess engineering. Part 3. Implementation of
the system approach in investigations of bioprocess systems with fixed film. Ecological engineering and
environment protection, 1, 2006, 45-59 (in Bulgarian).
5. Nikolov, L., E. Petrova, V. Mamatarkova, St. Stoytchev, Study on forming and functioning of biofilm by
means of mathematical model. Ecological engineering and environment protection, 2, 2006, 46-52 (in
Bulgarian).
6. Nikolov, L., V. Mamatarkova, Bioprocess systems with fixed film – the base for development of ecological
friendly tehnologies. Ecological engineering and environment protection, 3-4, 2005, 16-31 (in Bulgarian).
7. Simeonov, I., Y. Petkov, B. Baykov, S. Mihailova, A. Mirkov, Laboratory studies upon biogas production
from poultry litter. Ecological engineering and environment protection, 3-4, 2005 (in Bulgarian) (in print).
8. Kieffer, M., E. Walter, I. Simeonov, Guaranteed Nonlinear Parameter Estimation for Continuous-Time
Dynamical Models. Proc of 14th IFAC Symposium on System Identification (SYSID), Newcastle
(Australia), March 29-31, 2006, 843-848.
9. Diop, S., I. Simeonov, A differential algebraic approach to anaerobic digestion estimation problems. Proc.
of the IEEE 14th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Italy, June 28-30, 2006, Paper No
228 (on CD).
10. Diop, S., E. Chorukova, I. Simeonov, Identifiability and observability of some anaerobic digestion models.
Proc. of the Int. Conf. “Automatics and Informatics’06”, Sofia, October 03-06, 2006, 85-88.
11. Simeonov, I., S. Stoyanov, Extremum seeking control of the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes with
Contois kinetics. Proc. of the Int. Conf. “Automatics and Informatics’06”, Sofia, October 03-06, 2006, 9397.
12. Zlateva, P., I. Simeonov, Variable structure control of the anaerobic digestion with addition of acetate. Proc. of the
Int. Conf. “Automatics and Informatics’06”, Sofia, October 03-06, 2006, 103-106.
13. Nikolov, L., V. Mamatarkova, E. Petrova, St. Stoytchev, Modeling of Base Phenomena in Bioprocess
Systems with Spontaneously Fixed Biomass. Proc. of 10th Jubilee National Congress on Theoretical and
Applied Mechanic, vol.1, 2005, 543-547.
14. Nikolov, L., The Inverse Fluidization – Mechanical Aspects and Biotechnological Applications. Proc. of
10th Jubilee National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanic, vol.1, 2005, 529-542.
15. Petkov, Y., B. Baykov, E. Chorukova, R. Atanassova, I. Simeonov, Laboratory studies upon continuous
anaerobic digestion process of mixtures of cattle manure and poultry litter. Proc. of Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, 2006 г., University of Forestry Publishing House, 2006 (in Bulgarian) (in print).
16. Karakashev D., D. Galabova and I. Simeonov, A simple and rapid test for differentiation of aerobic from
anaerobic bacteria, Word Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 19, 2003, 233-238.
17. Simeonov I., Methods of the automatics in bio-ecological systems, Automatics and Informatics, No 6,
2002, 7-10 (in Bulgarian).
18. Simeonov I., S. Stoyanov, V. Lubenova, Robust compensator control of aerobic continuous fermentation
processes with state estimation, Archives of Control Sciences, Vol. 13, No 1, 2003, 5-18.
19. Simeonov I., S. Stoyanov, Modelling and dynamic compensator control of the anaerobic digestion of
organic wastes, Chem. Biochem.Eng.Q., 17 (4), 2003, 285-292.
20. Karakashev D., I.Simeonov, D. Galabova L.Stefanova, S.Jordanov, Mathematical model of the anaerobic
biodegradation of waste activated sludge from municipal wastewaters treatment plants, Ecological
engineering and environment protection, 2, 2004, 58-67 (in Bulgarian).
21. Laroche B., I. Simeonov, Start-up of an anaerobic digester based an open loop flat control, Information
Technologies and Control, No 2, 2005, 34-40.
22. Lubenova V., I. Simeonov, I. Queinnec, Two-step parameter and state estimation of the anaerobic
digestion, 15th IFAC Word Congress, Barcelona, July 21-26, 2002, (on CD).
23. Simeonov I., A. Naamane, Hybrid mathematical modeling and pH control of anaerobic waste waters
treatment processes, Int. Conf. AIS, Lisbonne (Portugal), April 7-10, 2002, 175-179.
24. Simeonov I., E. Chorukova, B. Kalchev, Anaerobic digestion modeling with artificial neural networks,
Proc of the 9th IFAC Int. Symp. “Computer Application in Biotechnology 2004 (CAB9)”, (Editors: M.-N.
Pons and J.F.M Van Impe) Nancy, France, March 2004, 225-230.
25. Simeonov I., E.Chorukova, Neural networks modeling of two biotechnological processes, Second IEEE
International Conference on Intelligent Systems, June 2004, 331-336.
26. Simeonov I, N. Noykova, S. Stoyanov, Modelling and extremum seeking control of the anaerobic
digestion, IFAC workshop DECOM-TT, Bansko (Bulgaria) Oct. 3-5, 2004, 289-294.
27. Laroche B., I. Simeonov, Start-up of an anaerobic digestion process based an open loop flat control, 17th
IMACS World Congress – Scientific Computation, Applied Mathematics and Simulation, Paris (France),
July 11-15, 2005 (on CD).
28. Nikolov L., Initiative Role of System Approach in the Investigations of Bioprocess Systems with Fixed
Films, Biotechnology and Bioequipment, 2006, v.20, No 3, 192-203.
29. Nikolov L., D. Karamanev, V. Mamatarkova, D. Mehochev, D. Dimitrov, Properties of the Biofilm of
Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Formed in Rotating Biological Contactor, Biochemical Engineering J., 2002, vol.
12, 43-48.