The business of metabolite

production
 World production of ethanol – 9000 crores lts
 How much are the yields per biomass? – 0.4 lts from kg of
corn
 Why scale up?
Ethanol Production Plant in IOWA
Bioreactor
Should provide environment for
growth of cells

Should maintain aseptic conditions

A simple bioreactor

A hundred – Year old VAT – Schell’ s Beer

A more complex one
What is a bioreactor?
• Any vessel which provides proper environment for growth
and product formation

• Maintains the aseptic conditions

A fermenter is a type of bioreactor where the

biocatalyst is a microorganism
Bioreactor designs
Stirred tank

Air – Lift

Packed – bed

Fluidised – bed

Tray reactors
On-line monitoring
 Vital for rapidly changing fermentation parameters
 Common measurements
 pH
 Dissolved oxygen
 Temperature
 Pressure
 Flow rate
 Stirrer speed
 Foam level
 Gas composition
 Broth weight

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Off-line monitoring
 Slower (2-24 hours for results)
 Common measurements
 Biomass concentration
 Nutrient concentration
 Protein assays
 Rheology
 Cell type

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 Temperature monitoring
devices –
Mercury in glass thermometers
Electrical resistance
thermometers
Thermistors

Control – Jackets, Coils, Heating

element , cold finger

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 Pressure

Control -

Safety valves

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 Flow rate –
Gas – Rotameter, Thermal mass
flow meters
Liquid – Venturimeter, Orifice
meter

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 RPM - Tachometer
 Weight - Load cell
 Viscosity – Viscometer
 Foam – Conductivity meter

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 pH - pH electrodes are used for monitoring

Control – by adding acid or base at appropriate time

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 Dissolved Oxygen
Galvanometric Probe
Polarographic Probe

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Aseptic Sampling

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Air Sparging
 Types of Sparger
 Porous spargers – small scale, limited throughput, risk
of cells blocking holes
 Orifice spargers –
 Nozzle spargers – common, high air flow

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Agitators
Disk Turbine
Vaned Disk
Open turbine
Marine Propeller

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Seals
‘O’ Ring Seal
Mechanical seal

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 Redox Potential - Redox electrodes
 Ion specific sensors
 Exit gas analysis
oxygen – Paramagnetic analyzer
CO2 - Infrared analyzer
Mass spectrometer

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Valves
Globe Valve
Gate Valve
Piston Valve
Diaphragm valve

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Biomass Estimation Methods
 Online Measurement - Nephelometric,
Conductivimetric, Turbidometric
Direct methods - Dry weight, Packed cell volume,
Turbidity
Indirect methods – DNA , RNA , Protein , ATP

Others – Particle counters ,Plate count ,Flow

cytometry

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Basics of Flow Cytometry
Cells in suspension
Fluidics
flow in single-file through
an illuminated volume where they
Optics scatter light and emit
fluorescence
that is collected, filtered and
Electronics converted to digital values
that are stored on a computer 29
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