Analysis and simulation of complex interactions during dynamic microfiltration of Escherichia coli suspensions

Bioprocess engineering issues that would be faced in producing a DNA vaccine at up to 100 m3 fermentation scale for an influenza pandemic

The risk of a pandemic with a virulent form of influenza is acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies. Current vaccine production facilities would be unable to meet the global requirement for vaccine. As a possible supplement a DNA vaccine may be appropriate, and bioprocess engineering factors bearing on the use of existing biopharmaceutical and antibiotics plants to produce it are described. This approach addresses the uncertainty of timing of a pandemic that precludes purpose-built facilities. The strengths and weaknesses of alternative downstream processing routes are analyzed, and several gaps in public domain information are addressed. The conclusion is that such processing would be challenging but feasible.

Microfiltration and ultrafiltration of polysaccharides produced by fermentation using a rotating disk dynamic filtration system

The recovery of exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by Sinorhizobium meliloti bacteria by dynamic microfiltration was investigated using a rotating disk device designed in our laboratory, equipped with a 0.2 microm nylon membrane. This system differs from commercially available systems by the presence of vanes on the disk which produce a very important increase in permeate flux while yielding excellent EPS transmission. For polymers produced under standard fermentation conditions (70 h at 30 degrees C), the mass flux rose to 650 g h(-1) m(-2) using a disk equipped with 2 mm vanes rotating at 2000 rpm against 380 g h(-1) m(-2) with a smooth disk at the same speed. The maximum flux observed was 1560 g h(-1) m(-2) with a 6-mm vanes disk rotating at 3000 rpm and a 36 degrees C broth. An interesting finding was that the permeate flux J(f) for various disks can be correlated by the same function of the mean shear stress at the membrane tau(wm) according to J(f) = 4.6 tau(wm) (0.717) for a 30 degrees C broth, showing that the effect of vanes is merely to increase the shear stress by raising the fluid core velocity between the membrane and the disk. With 6-mm vanes the core angular velocity was found to be 84% of disk velocity vs. 45% for a smooth disk. When the fermentation temperature was increased to 36 degrees C to produce a lower molecular weight polymer, the permeate flux rose by about 250%, much more than what could be expected from the reduction in permeate viscosity and followed the same power law with membrane shear stress as for 30 degrees C. The same device was equipped with a PES 50 kDa membrane to concentrate EPS by ultrafiltration. Permeate fluxes were of the order of 160 L h(-1) m(-2) at 2000 rpm and 30 degrees C with nearly complete EPS rejection. Finally, the net electrical power consumed by the disk was measured by subtracting the power consumed without fluid from the power during filtration at the same speed. This power increases with speed and with the presence of vanes, but since the gain provided by the vanes is very high, the specific energy per m(3) of permeate is minimal with the highest vanes tested (6 mm) and maximal for smooth disks.

Cell retention devices for suspended-cell perfusion cultures

Perfusion cultures of animal cells have several advantages over batch or fed-batch cultures. They give, for instance, higher productivities and a consistent product quality, and allow steady state operation and better cell physiology control. However, one of the main aspects limiting performance and scale-up of perfusion processes is the need for an adequate cell retention device. The devices currently in use for stirred perfusion bioreactors are continuous centrifuges, tangential flow membrane filters, dynamic filters, spin-filters, ultrasonic and dielectrophoretic separators, gravity settlers and, more recently, hydrocyclones. The advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods will be discussed.

Studies on the interaction of fermentation and microfiltration operations: erythromycin recovery from Saccharopolyspora erythraea fermentation broths

Changes in fermentation media not only affect the performance of the fermentation itself (with regard to the kinetics of biomass and product formation and the yields obtained) but also the initial product-recovery operations downstream of the fermentor. In this work, microfiltration experiments to remove Saccharopolyspora erythraea biomass from fermentation broth and to recover erythromycin were carried out using two fundamentally different media; a soluble complex medium (SCM) and an oil-based process medium (OBM). Small-scale batch fermentations of 14-L working volume were carried out in triplicate using both media. Broth samples were taken from each fermentation at regular intervals from the end of the exponential-growth phase onwards. These were then processed using a Minitan II (acrylic), tangential crossflow-filtration module, fitted with a single 60 cm(2) Durapore hydrophilic 0.2 microm membrane, operated in concentration mode. The OBM fermentations produced higher titers of erythromycin but required longer fermentation times due to increased lag phases and slower maximum-growth rates. The OBM also increased the loading on the membrane; at maximum product titers residual oil concentrations of 3 g. L(-1), antifoam concentrations of 2 g. L(-1) and flour concentrations estimated at approximately 10 g/L(-1) were typical. It was found that both the permeate flux and erythromycin transmission were affected by the choice of medium. The OBM had significantly lower values for both parameters (12.8 Lm(-2) h(-1) and 89.6% respectively) than the SCM (35.9 Lm(-2) h(-1) and 96.7% respectively) when the fermentations were harvested at maximum erythromycin titers. Transmission of erythromycin stayed approximately constant as a function of fermentation time for both media, however, for the OBM the permeate flux decreased with time which correlated with an increase in broth viscosity. The relatively poor microfiltration performance of the OBM medium was, however, offset by the higher titers of erythromycin that were achieved during the fermentation. The filtration characteristics of the SCM broth did not show any correlation with either broth viscosity or fermentation time. Image-analysis data suggested that there was a correlation between hyphal morphology (main hyphal length) and permeate flux (no such correlation was found for the OBM broth). Moreover, it has been shown for the OBM broth that the residual flour had a profound effect on the microfiltration characteristics. The influence of the residual flour was greater than that imposed by the morphology and concentration of the biomass. The understanding of the factors governing the interaction of the fermentation and microfiltration operations obtained in this work provides a first step towards optimization of the overall process sequence.