1. FERMENTATION

2. Fermenter
Fermenter is a vessel or tank in which whole cells or cell-free enzymes transform raw materials into biochemical products and/or less undesirable by-products. It is also termed as Bioreactor.
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.

3. INDUSTRIAL FERMENTERS

4. DESIGN OF FERMENTER Components of fermenter:
Basic component includes drive motor, heaters, pump, etc.
Vessels and accessories
Peripheral equipment (reagent bottles)
Instrumentation and sensors

5. Various components of an ideal fermenter for batch process are:

6. Fermenter construction
corrosion resistant
non-toxic
withstand repeated sterilization with high pressure steam
mechanical stress
Visual inspection of the medium and culture is advantageous, transparent materials should be used

7. Optimisation of the Fermenter System
contaminating 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

9. Basic fermenter configuration
A microbial fermentation can be viewed as a three- phase system, involving liquid-solid, gas-solid, and gas-liquid 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.

10. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Microbial Growth Kinetics describe how the microbe grows in the fermenter. This information is important to determine optimal batch times. The growth of microbes in a fermenter can be broken down into four stages:
Lag Phase
Exponential Phase
Stationary Phase
Death Phase

11. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Lag Phase
This is the first phase in the fermentation process and it may be absent in certain fermentation processes.
It is a period of adaptation of the cells to their new environment.
Cell growth is minimal in this phase.

12. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Exponential Phase
This is the second phase in the fermentation process. It is also known as log phase.
The cells have adjusted to their environment and rapid growth takes place.
Cell growth rate is highest in this phase.
At some point the cell growth rate will level off and become constant.

13. Microbial Growth Kinetics
The most likely cause of this leveling off is substrate limited inhibition.
Substrate limited inhibition means that the microbes do not have enough nutrients in the medium to continue multiplying.

14. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Stationary phase
This is the third phase in the fermentation process.
The cell growth rate has leveled off and become constant.
The number of cells multiplying equals the number of cells dying.

15. Microbial Growth Kinetics
Death phase
The fourth phase in the fermentation process
The number of cells dying is greater than the number of cells multiplying
The cause of the death phase is usually that the cells have consumed most of the nutrients in the medium and there is not enough left for sustainability

16. Metabolites
Primary metabolites are produced during active cell growth (log phase)/ trophophase
Secondary metabolites are produced near the onset of stationary phase/ idiophase
products which do not have an obvious role in cell metabolism

17. Metabolites

18. Metabolites

19. PRODUCTION OF PENICILLIN
Penicillin was the first important commercial product produced by an aerobic, submerged fermentation
First antibiotic to have been manufacture in bulk.
Used as input material for some semi synthetic antibiotics.
It is fermented in a batch culture.

20. Commercial Production Of Penicillin
Like all antibiotics, penicillin is a secondary metabolite, so is only produced in the stationary phase.

21. The yield of penicillin can be increased by:
Improvement in composition of the medium
Isolation of better penicillin producing mold sp. Penicillium chrysogenum which grow better in huge deep fermentation tank.
Development of submerged culture technique for cultivation of mold in large volume of liquid medium through which sterile air is forced.

22. The main stages of Penicillin production are: