Process Development at Laboratory Scale

Polysaccharides. Many strains of bacteria produce succinoglycan (1). The Rhizobia, particularly, grow very slowly, and the rate of polymer production is low. Much effort was spent obtaining a strain which produced succinoglycan at a high rate and of good quality (2.3). An organism was selected and a fermentation process developed at laboratory scale. The process has been scaled up successfully and operated at 220 cubic metre scale. 

The next step was to demonstrate, on a large scale, the feasibility of the processes developed at laboratory scale to separate and purify the waste solvent streams into their original components for reuse. An offer of co-financing was received from the European Union s LIFE — environment. LIFE (Financial Instrument for the Environment) is a financial instrument used by the European Commission to support the development and implementation of the Community environmental policy as described in their Fifth Community Action Programme. 

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