Penicillins extraction equipment

Problems that can arise in the process include the formation of emulsions during extraction from the presence of surface-active impurities in the filtered broth. The effect of these can be minimized by introducing appropriate surfactants that can also reduce the accumulation of solids in the extraction equipment. In addition, other organic impurities are present that can be coextracted with the penicillin. It has been found that a number of these can be removed by adsorption onto active carbon. 

Penicillin extraction is an example of the application of process enhancanent via electrostatic fields. Solvent extraction as a means of recovery and purification of penicillin-G and a number of other antibiotics is well-established for these products. Use of liquid-liquid extraction involves operation at close to ambient tanper-ature and equipment-intensive processes such as precipitation and oystallization can be kept to a minimum. The high selectivity offered by chanicaUy suitable solvents has furthered the exploitation of extraction as a recovery ronte. In the case of penicillin-G (pen-G), extraction into a number of solvents is well known and these include n-butyl acetate, amyl acetate, chloroform, and methyl iso-bntyl ketone. 

Due to the special situation in the post-war era, the implementation of this endeavor was extremely difficult. With the help of a French chemist, Captain Rambaud, of the French occupation forces, a small team of scientists and engineers succeeded in producing sufficiently pure penicillin within a rather short period of time (1948). Problems of equipment were solved by using various redundant military materials, e.g. V2 missile containers as liquid vessels, self-produced fermenters stirred with the help of motors of submarines and aerated by compressors powered by motors of German Tiger tanks. The necessary pipes were obtained from a bombed Innsbruck cafe. Since corn-steep liquor was not available, yeast extract had to be used, and whey had to serve as a substitute for lactose. Even the necessary butanol for the preparation of the extractant had to be produced by installing a butanol fermentation. 

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