AVT - Research - Research project

In this collaborative project a diffusive controlled microbioreactor system will be developed and tested. The aim is the development of a fed batch system for microbial cultivations in small scale.

Today biotechnological production processes in large scale are mostly realized in fed batch processes. Reasons for this are among others higher productivities of the microorganisms as well as the chance of controlling the process strictly via the substrate uptake rate of the organisms. In contrast the screening of mediums and microbial strains is conducted conventionally in batch processes. The fundamental discrepancy between these two operation modes leads to an error in the selection of strains in an early step of process development because of the difference of selective pressure in both processes. Therefore the aim of the collaborative project described here is the development of a diffusive controlled substrate dosing in microbioreactors. Beside the common development of the overall system in our interdisciplinary joint project the Chair of Biochemical Engineering will characterize the diffusion kinetics through the diffusion barrier. To calculate and optimize the substrate diffusion in the culture broth mathematical modeling and simulation will be conducted. The characterization of the overall system will be validated via appropriate cultivation experiments. Furthermore, the comparability between microbioreactor and stirred tank reactor will be shown experimentally. This collaborative project is aided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Project partner are the Chair of Biochemical Engineering (AVT.BioVT, www.avt.rwth-aachen.de), the Institute of Technical und Macromolecular Chemistry (ITMC, www.itmc.rwth-aachen.de) (both RWTH Aachen University) was well as the companies m2p-labs GmbH, Aachen (www.m2p-labs.com) and Cevec Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Köln (www.cevec.com).