BIONET is constantly complementing its bioreactors with components and software solutions that help the bioprocess industry be more productive. The Bioreactor Continuous Process Module for the laboratory and pilot bioreactors is an example of this.

The Continuous Process in the context of a bioreactor operation mode is used to prolong the production phase of a culture during its growth in a steady-state (at a constant rate and in constant conditions) to achieve higher biomass and/or metabolites amounts.

There are two main process control strategies that can be implemented in Continuous Processing: the chemostat and the turbidostat methods.

Assuming that all the other experiment conditions are controlled, the chemostat is based on the control of the concentration and constant flow rate in the addition of the limiting substrate, making use of the relationship between the concentration and the utilization of a limiting substrate and the specific growth rate. This way, the user decides a dilution rate that equals the wanted specific growth rate. Thereby the user can also decide and configure the addition pump rate on the premises that dilution rate is also equal to the feed-in rate divided by the volume. A withdrawal rate is also used, to keep the biomass concentration and bioreactor volume constant in the bioreactor.

In the turbidostat, the user can establish an addition control strategy on the basis of the turbidity of the fermentation/culture broth. The addition flow rate is therefore varaiable: when the turbidity is low the feed-in rate will be diminished in order for the cell density to be replenished, whereas when the turbidity is high, the feed-in rate will be increase in order to dilute the turbidity.

The productivity of a Continuous Process is higher than that of a fed-batch process. However, the process knowledge required for its application (e.g what dilution rate to apply, how the dilution rate affects the concentration of the susbstrate, etc) makes it hard to be implemented sometimes.

BIONET works hard to provide technology and scientific support services to introduce these practices in your day-to-day bioprocess routine.

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