Expansion into Fermentation Products

Continued growth is expected in fermentation of glucose into saleable products, with the production of additional amino acids, vitamin feed additives, lactic acid or biopesticides.283 Not all companies will expand into these products. Ethanol production will continue to expand, but not at the rate that dry grind facilities did during the period from 2004-2007. For wet-mills, the addition of ethanol capacity will be as part of a waste treatment plan to minimize recycle streams. If polylactic acid284-287 becomes economically competitive, the demand for lactic acid could be explosive. 

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Unit operations for biological products obtained from fermentation or cell culture can largely be subdivided into four parts medium preparation, inoculums expansion, bioreactor, and harvest operations. 

The first imports of carob gum into this country were made in the late 1920 s, although this gum had been used as a thickener for textile printing pastes in Germany prior to World War I and, for some time prior to that, in Spain and Portugal as a starch replacement and as a size for paper and textiles. From Biblical times, the pods had been used in the Mediterranean countries for human and animal feed and as a source of fermentable carbohydrate. It is probable that the independent value of the bean as a source of gum was unearthed by the pharmacists, for one of the early uses of the flour in Europe was as a bulk laxative. Expansion of the American market has stimulated production of seed in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Some of the seed is milled in those countries, as well as in England, Holland, Switzerland, and the United States. 

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