1. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Lecture 2
Tahir

2. Fermenters

3. Fermentation Process

4. Fermentation Technology
-> Fermentation: from latin -> ”fervere” -> to boil (describing the anaerobic process of yeast producing CO2 on fruit extracts)
-> Nowadays: more broad meaning!!!!
The five major groups of commercially important fermentations:
-> Process that produces microbial cells (Biomass) as a product
-> Process that produces microbial enzymes as a product
-> Process that produces microbial metabolites (primary or secondary) as a product
-> Process that produces recombinant products (enzymes or metabolite) as a product
-> Process that modifies a compound that is added to the fermentation – transformation process

5. Growth: basic concepts
Precursors
Anabolism = biosynthesis
Catabolism = reactions to recover energy (often ATP)

6. Fermentation Respiration No added terminal e--acceptor
Oxidant = terminal e--acceptor
ATP: substrate level phosphorylation
ATP: (e--transport) oxidative phosphoryl.
Glucose
Glucose
2 ATP
2 NADH
2 Glyceraldehyde-3-P
2 ATP
2 NADH
2 Pyruvate
CO2
2 Acetyl-CoA
2 Pyruvate
CO2
GTP
NADH, FADH
Regeneration of NAD+
Citric acid
cycle
2 Lactate
+ 2 H+
Acetaldehyde
+2 CO2
Acetate
+ Formate
ATP
H2O O2 in
2 Ethanol
H2 + CO2
Cytoplasmic membrane H+ H+ H+ H+ H+ H+
out
1 Glucose  2 ATP
1 Glucose  38 ATP
Slow growth/low biomass yield
Fast growth/high biomass yield

7. Major functions of a fermentor
1) Provide operation free from contamination;
2) Maintain a specific temperature;
3) Provide adequate mixing and aeration;
4) Control the pH of the culture;
5) Allow monitoring and/or control of dissolved oxygen;
6) Allow feeding of nutrient solutions and reagents;
7) Provide access points for inoculation and sampling;
8) Minimize liquid loss from the vessel;
9) Facilitate the growth of a wide range of organisms.
(Allman A.R., 1999: Fermentation Microbiology and Biotechnology)

8. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Fermentation can be carried out as:
Batch
Continuous
Fed-batch processes
Mode of operation is to a large extent dictated by the type of product being produced.

9. Biotechnological processes of growing microorganisms in a bioreactor

10. Batch Culture

14. Growth cycle of yeast during beer fermentation
From: Papazian C (1991), The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing.

15. Alternate modes of energy generation
(H2S, H2, NH3)
(in autotrophs)
Fermentation
Fermentation

16. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial cells (Biomass) as a product mainly for -> baking industry (yeast) -> human or animal food (microbial cells)

17. Fermentation Technology

18. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial enzymes as a product mainly for -> food industry

19. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial metabolites (primary or secondary) as a product

20. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial metabolites (primary or secondary) as a product

21. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial metabolites (primary or secondary) as a product

22. Fermentation Technology
-> Process that produces microbial metabolites (primary or secondary) as a product

23. Continuous cultures

25. Fed-Batch Culture
A fed-batch is a biotechnological batch process which is based on feeding of a growth limiting nutrient substrate to a culture. The fed-batch strategy is typically used in bio-industrial processes to reach a high cell density in the bioreactor. Mostly the feed solution is highly concentrated to avoid dilution of the bioreactor. The controlled addition of the nutrient directly affects the growth rate of the culture and allows to avoid overflow metabolism (formation of side metabolites, such as acetate for Escherichia coli, lactic acid in cell cultures, ethanol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae), oxygen limitation (anaerobiosis).

26. Batch culture versus continuous culture
Continuous systems: limited to single cell protein, ethanol productions, and some forms of waste-water treatment processes.
Batch cultivation: the dominant form of industrial usage due to its many advantages.
(Smith J.E, 1998: Biotechnology)

27. Advantages of batch culture versus continuous culture
Products may be required only in a small quantities at any given time.
Market needs may be intermittent.
Shelf-life of certain products is short.
High product concentration is required in broth for optimizing downstream processes.
Some metabolic products are produced only during the stationary phase of the growth cycle.
Instability of some production strains require their regular renewal.
Compared to continuous processes, the technical requirements for batch culture is much easier.