Model-based enhancement of fermentation scale-up

The scale-up of promising fermentation schemes to economically viable large-scale processes is hampered by limitations in mixing and mass and heat transfer that manifest themselves in altered metabolism of the production host and in suboptimal productivity and yield of the desired product. This doctoral research project aims to provide novel solutions to the problems of scale-up by identifying generally optimal bioreactor behaviour and studying how the reactors could be brought closer to the optimum. The research focuses on macro-scale mixing in mechanically and pneumatically agitated reactors, contacting patterns, and on the use of robust bacterial co-cultures. The proposed solutions and approaches will be evaluated by numerical simulations using compartmental reactor models, bioreaction kinetics, and population balances.