Questions for today:

1. What is a fermentation system? 2. What is the most widely used fermenter?

3. What are the other types of fermenter?

4. How do you control a fermentation system? 5. Why is mass transfer important?

Overview
(1) Basic design criteria and limitations (2) Stirred Tank Reactor (STR)

(3) Modifications and Industrial Examples

Biotechnological processing

Types of Fermentation

Process Design

Fermenter Design

Performance

Optimisation

Construction

Configuration

Control

Stirred Tank Reactor

What is a Fermenter?
Vessel or tank in which whole cells or cell-free enzymes transform raw materials into biochemical products and/or less undesirable by-products
Also termed a Bioreactor

Fermenter - Basic Function

The basic function of a fermenter is to provide a suitable environment in which an organism can efficiently produce a target product that may be - cell biomass,
- a metabolite, - or bioconversion product.

Fermentation System
we will concentrate on fermenters used in traditional microbial, plant and animal cell culture
However with the advent of recombinant DNA technology alternate systems for producing specific cell products are now available

Two Types of Fermentation Systems

closed or open.
A closed system implies that all the nutrient components are added at the beginning of the fermentation process and, as a result, the growth rate of the contained organisms will eventually proceed to zero due either to diminishing nutrients or accumulation of toxic waste products. A modification of the batch process is the fed batch system. Here, volumes of nutrients may be added to augment depletion of nutrients. Overall, the system, however, remains closed and there is no continuous flow. In contrast to the above types, in the open system, organisms and

nutrients can continuously enter and leave the fermenter.

Fermenter General Functions

What it should be capable of;
Biomass concentration must remain high Maintain sterile conditions Efficient power consumption Effective agitation Heat removal Correct shear conditions Sampling facilities

 Fermenters range from simple stirred tanks to complex integrated systems involving varying levels of computer input.
Fermenter design involves cooperation in Microbiology, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Economics There are 3 groups of bioreactor currently used for industrial production; - non-stirred, non-aerated (Beer and wine) - non-stirred, aerated (Biomass, eg Pruteen) - stirred, aerated (Antibiotics)

Fermenter construction
All materials must be corrosion resistant to prevent trace metal contamination of the process Materials must be non-toxic so that slight dissolution of the material or components does not inhibit culture growth Materials of the fermenter must withstand repeated sterilization with high pressure steam Fermenter stirrer system and entry ports be sufficiently robust not to be deformed under mechanical stress Visual inspection of the medium and culture is advantageous, transparent materials should be used

Basic fermenter configuration

A microbial fermentation can be viewed as a threephase system, involving liquid-solid, gas-solid, and gasliquid reactions.

The liquid phase contains dissolved nutrients, dissolved substrates and dissolved metabolites. The solid phase consists of individual cells, pellets, insoluble substrates, or precipitated metabolic products. The gaseous phase provides a reservoir for oxygen supply and for CO2 removal.

Optimisation of the Fermenter System

Fermenter should be designed to exclude entrance of contaminating organisms as well as containing the desired organisms
Culture volume should remain constant, Dissolved oxygen level must be maintained above critical levels of aeration and culture agitation for aerobic organisms

Parameters such as temperature of pH must be controlled, and the culture volume must be well mixed.
Therefore a need for control exists

Control of Chemical and Physical Conditions

Intensive properties (cannot be balanced) - temperature, concentration, pressure, specific heat Extrinsive properties (can be balanced) - mass, volume, entropy and energy Mass and energy levels should balance at the start and finish of fermentations. Combining this with determination of thermodynamic properties and rate equations we can build computer and mathematical models to control processes.

Conclusion
This lecture introduced the various parameters involved in design of an industrial fermenter.
Using a STR it illustrated the optimisation and control of a fermentation system.