Bioprocessing capital cost

With an aim to develop cost-competitive bio-based SA production processes from renewable non-food biomass, three important parameters, that is, productivity, titer, and yield, that affect the economic competitiveness of the bioprocess need to be considered. Productivity determines the size offermentor and other process equipment, and thus high productivity reduces the direct fixed capital costs, and also operating costs through the reduced depreciation costs of the equipment. However, the titer (concentration) cannot be sacrificed too much to increase the productivity because a low titer will significantly increase the recovery costs. Yield is very important for commodity chemicals including SA because it affects the costs of raw material (carbon substrate). 

Every bioprocess starts with the best possible cell factory. A better performing cell will allow for less capital, lower variable cost for the fermentation, and a simpler recovery process as the product will be more concentrated. More than one property makes for a good cell factory and none of the commonly used cell factories have all the needed attributes. Case-by-case development of a biocatalyst is still the norm, even though a platform for a given organism would help accelerate process development. Described below are elements from a process point of view to consider in choosing a biocatalyst for a bioprocess. 

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