Fermentation Pilot Plant

Yujiro Harada, Kuniaki Sakata, Seiji Sato and Shinsaku Takayama 

To develop the most cost efficient proeess, scale-up data must be collected by repeating experiments at the bench and pilot scale level. These data must be extensive. Unfortunately, the collection is far more difficult than it would be in the chemical and petrochemical industries. The nature of working with living material makes contamination commonplace and reproducibility of data difficult to achieve. Such problems quickly distort the relevant scale-up factors. 

In this chapter, three research scientists from Kyowa Kogyo Co. Ltd. have addressed the problems of experimentation and pilot scale-up for 

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Fermentation pilot plant, airlift fermenter Lonza, Slough, UK... 

We thank William DeVane for technical assistance with microfiltration and ultrafiltration operations, and John Finch and the fermentation pilot plant staff for providing fermentation broths. 

Figure 3. Configuration of distributed hierarchical computer system for fermentation pilot plant.

Small continuous sterilizers are used in fermentation pilot plants as well as for nutrient feeds to a single vessel or group of fermenters. 

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