Fundamental bottlenecks in the application of continuous bioprocesses.
Continuous culture is applied mainly as a research tool and much less as a production process. Fundamental bottlenecks in continuous culture are discussed to help shed light on this apparent contradiction. Based on a discussion of technical, process related, and economic/market bottlenecks it is concluded that the often mentioned productivity argument in favor of continuous processing is much too simple. The optimal choice of a process mode is determined by a full understanding of the equipment and production plant factors and of the economic/market factors. Very often the resulting choice will be the fed batch and/or the cell retention process mode which is characterized by low growth rates. Therefore more research towards product formation at low growth rates (less than 0.05 h-1) is needed.
Delft University of Technology, Department of Biochemical Engineering, The Netherlands.
J J
JJ
Heijnen
A H
AH
Terwisscha van Scheltinga
A J
AJ
Straathof
D001515:Beer; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D002455:Cell Division; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003611:Dairy Products; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D015014:Yogurt
D004798:Enzymes