Amino acid production

M/o: Corynebacterium glutamicum, Escherichia coli

Process design in amino acid production
Process monitoring
In a fermentation process, constant monitoring of crucial parameters and
process variables such as quality of inoculum, pH, feed rate, aeration
intensity and process temperature is required. Sterility has to be maintained
throughout the process.
C. glutamicum a high temperature (up to 41 °C) has been used to increase
the productivity of some amino acids such as L-glutamic acid.

Fed-batch production
 The most common reactor operation mode used in the amino acid
industry is the fed batch operation.
 In this configuration the process is started with only a small amount
of medium and inoculum. The carbon source is fed in the reactor.
 The nutrients necessary to perform the fermentation, such as
ammonium sulfate or pure ammonia, biotin and other vitamins, are
supplied at the beginning with the inoculum.
 This configuration ensures an adequate oxygen capacity to satisfy the
oxygen demand, preventing oxygen limitation in the culture with
consequent formation of undesired by-products.

Continuous production
This operation mode can provide productivity and process outputs 2.5
fold higher than the fed-batch technology.
 However, the main drawbacks of this configuration process are the
increased contamination risk, due to the continuous flows into and
from the reactor, and the possible strain instabilities caused by the
continuous changes in the working conditions.

Downstream separation and purification

 The separation of the amino acids from the fermentation broth is
usually done by centrifugation or filtration followed by a purification
 step using chromatographic techniques chosen according to the
product properties such as solubility, isoelectric point and affinity to
adsorbent.
 However, a significant loss of products, due to the numerous removal
steps
required in the purification phase, and the high costs associated to the
production of high purity amino acids, represent the main
disadvantages of the process.
 Therefore, membrane-based processes, because of their high
selectivity combined with low demand of heat inputs, are gaining
increasing interest.
 Nanofiltration is an innovative technique among the pressure driven
membrane filtration methods.
 These membranes can be easily integrated with the conventional
fermenters combining production and purification in the same
operation unit and therefore reducing the capital investment.