Concentrating Fermentation Broth

Fermentation concentration is a fundamental procedure in downstream processing. fermentation broths need to be concentrated prior to further purification of desired products due to diluted fermentation broth containing a large amount of water and complex mixtures.

As a leading fermentation CDMO, BOC Sciences has expertise in downstream process optimization. With our extensive experience in fermentation process development and advanced fermentation supporting equipment, we customize individual concentration proposals according to the nature of target products. We are sufficient in providing quality fermentation broth concentrating services to meet our customers' needs.

Introduction of Concentrating Fermentation Broth

The composition of fermentation broth is extremely complex, which usually includes sugars, inorganic salts, proteins, enzymes, and various metabolites that are not fully utilized by microorganisms. Moreover, the concentration of fermentation broth is often very dilute and leading to low product yield. The filtrate obtained after solid-liquid separation of fermentation broth that has removed microbial cells and solid precipitates, usually contained large amounts of water. Therefore, the recovery of soluble broth components is often preceded by a concentration step.

Considering that desired fermentation product is a minor component, it is necessary to remove water in order to achieve concentrated production. Common techniques used in concentrating biological products include evaporation, liquid-liquid extraction, membrane filtration, precipitation, and adsorption. In addition, certain substances in the fermentation broth are unstable, so the selection of appropriate fermentation broth pretreatment and concentration techniques promotes efficient separation of the fermentation broth.

Methods of Concentrating Fermented Products

• Evaporation: Water content in the fermentation broth can be removed by a simple evaporation process.
• Liquid-liquid extraction: The concentration of biological products can be achieved by transferring solutes from one liquid phase to another. In addition, this technique can also be used for partial purification of the product.
• Membrane filtration: A commonly used separation technique in industrial biotechnology for liquid solutions or gas mixtures, and it is often used in the separation of biomolecules and particles, as well as fluid concentrating.
• Precipitation: The precipitation technique is often used in the fermentation industry to concentrate large molecules, such as proteins and polysaccharides.
• Adsorption: The bioproducts of fermentation can be concentrated using solid adsorbent particles. For example, cellulose-based adsorbents are used for protein concentration.

Applications of Concentrating Fermentation Broth

Microbial fermentation is involved in the production of high-value biological products such as antibiotics, modified peptides, proteins, enzymes, oligonucleotides, etc. However, these fermentation products are formed in dilute solutions, and the major component of the fermentation broth is composed of water. Thus, it is necessary to perform concentration operations on biological products for efficient recovery steps and reduced recovery costs for purification, compared to direct purification with the diluted solution.

What Can We Do?

BOC Sciences is committed to providing one-stop fermentation services. We offer customized fermentation broth concentration services to meet our customers' individual needs. As an excellent provider of fermentation CDMO services, BOC Sciences is able to accommodate quality and cost-effective fermentation processing services for the separation of desired molecules. Our experienced experts will work closely with our customers to facilitate and support the commercialization of projects.