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Microbial Fermentation01:23

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Fermentation is a crucial anaerobic metabolic process that enables microbes to derive energy from sugar without relying on oxygen or an electron transport chain. This process is fundamental to various biological and industrial applications and is classified based on the metabolic products generated.Role of Pyruvate in FermentationPyruvate and its derivatives serve as key electron acceptors in fermentative pathways. The oxidation of NADH to regenerate NAD+ is essential for the continuation of...
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Bioreactor Design and Operational System01:29

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Bioreactors are engineered vessels designed to cultivate microorganisms under controlled conditions for industrial bioprocessing. They maintain sterility and allow precise regulation of pH, temperature, oxygen, and nutrient levels to optimize microbial growth and metabolite production. Bioreactors range from small laboratory units of 1 liter to industrial systems holding up to 500,000 liters, though only about 75% of their volume is actively used for fermentation. The remaining headspace...
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Bioreactor Controls-II

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In aerobic fermentations, oxygen is vital for microbial growth and metabolite production. Since air comprises only about 20% oxygen and the gas is poorly soluble in water—just 9 ppm at 20°C—supplying sufficient oxygen becomes a critical challenge, especially in high-demand processes like yeast growth or citric acid production. Even a fully saturated broth may offer only a few seconds of oxygen availability.To address this, sterile or scrubbed air is introduced into the...
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Batch vs Continuous Culture01:14

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Fermentation is a foundational biotechnological process used to produce pharmaceuticals, biofuels, enzymes, and food additives. Among industrial strategies, batch and continuous fermentation are the two most widely applied. Although both rely on microbial conversion of substrates into desired products, they differ markedly in operation, productivity, and suitability for specific applications.Batch fermentation occurs in a closed system in which nutrient media and inoculum are added at the...
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Scale-Up Processes01:14

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The scale-up of microbial fermentation processes is essential in industrial biotechnology, allowing the transition from laboratory-scale experiments to commercial-scale production while aiming to maintain product yield and quality. This process requires meticulous adjustment of equipment design, process parameters, and contamination control strategies to accommodate increasing culture volumes.At the laboratory scale, cultures are typically maintained in 1 to 10-liter glass or autoclavable...
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Upstream Processing01:27

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Upstream processing represents a critical phase in biomanufacturing, wherein biological systems such as microorganisms, mammalian cells, or insect cells are cultivated to produce therapeutic proteins, vaccines, enzymes, or other biologically derived products. This phase encompasses all steps from the selection and genetic manipulation of the production organism to the cultivation of cells in bioreactors under tightly controlled environmental conditions.Host Selection and Genetic OptimizationThe...
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Microfluidic Picoliter Bioreactor for Microbial Single-cell Analysis: Fabrication, System Setup, and Operation
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Flow fermentation: microsystems for whole-cell bioproduction processes.

Lina Hollmann1, Lars M Blank2, Alexander Grünberger1

  • 1Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering (MBVT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.

Trends in Biotechnology
|January 31, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Microsystems offer a novel approach to whole-cell bioproduction, enabling efficient, scalable manufacturing. This technology, termed flow fermentation, opens new avenues for industrial biotechnology applications.

Keywords:
bioprocessingbioproductioncontinuous biomanufacturingflow biocatalysismicrofluidicsmicrosystem

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Area of Science:

  • Industrial Biotechnology
  • Bioprocess Engineering
  • Microfluidics

Background:

  • Industrial biotechnology relies on large-scale bioreactors for producing valuable compounds using whole cells.
  • Bioreactor miniaturization has advanced bioprocess understanding and optimization.
  • Microsystems are established in chemistry and biocatalysis but underutilized for whole-cell bioprocesses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the potential of microsystems as production units for whole-cell bioproduction.
  • To discuss the fundamental and translational aspects of applying microsystems in this field.
  • To introduce 'flow fermentation' as a microscale bioproduction strategy.

Main Methods:

  • Review of microsystem characteristics and advantages.
  • Highlighting current production approaches in microsystems.
  • Conceptualizing future whole-cell bioproduction at the microscale.

Main Results:

  • Microsystems present unique characteristics beneficial for bioproduction.
  • Current applications demonstrate feasibility, though limited for whole-cell systems.
  • Flow fermentation is proposed as a scalable microscale bioproduction method.

Conclusions:

  • Microsystems hold significant promise for revolutionizing whole-cell bioproduction.
  • Flow fermentation offers a pathway to novel bioprocesses and applications.
  • Further development is needed to fully realize microscale whole-cell bioproduction.