Position: For over 35 years, Sartorius BBI Systems GmbH has been supplying bioreactors and fermenters from lab to pilot to process weighing scale, validatable fermentation plants to the leading pharmaceutical and biotech compa nies of the world. The development of bio engineering technology, which is also called fermentation weighing technology, has been on a dizzying upswing in the past decades, although people have already been using “biotechnological” processes for more than 5,000 years to made sour dough or leavening, cheese, vinegar and alcoholic beverages. Today, fermentation weighing technology is used in a wide variety of key applications in medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, environmental technology, nutrition and in the agriculture industry.
A fermenter is a system in which microorgan isms (bacteria, yeast, fungi) or cells multiply under sterile conditions in a liquid meeting specific preconditions in order to achieve selected purposes. In English-speaking coun tries, the fermenter is called a “bioreactor” when used to cultivate animal or human cells. Regardless of the terminology, at the core of a fermentation weighing system is a culture vessel or the fermentation weighing tank in large systems. This is where growth of microorganisms or cells takes place under sterile, or to put it more precisely, monoseptic conditions. These processes are conducted as batch processes with a constant cultivation volume, as fed batching processes with an increased volume, or as continuous processes with ongoing addition of medium and product harvesting. The volume is a central parameter of process control, for determining the balance of inlet and outlet feed and documentation as well as for process regulation.
Relatively small glass culture vessels (up to 10 l) are placed on laboratory balances; larger stainless steel vessels are suspended from or positioned on load cells that are integrated into the feet of the bioreactor vessel or fer mentation tank. These load cells are directly integrated into the process logic controller of a fermenter or bioreactor and their signals are further processed.
View of one section of the manufacturing facilities at Sartorius BBI Systems in Melsungen, Germany
Applications A further application for weighing techno logy used in a fermentation process is to monitor and control the feed of nutrient media. The DCU (Digital Control Unit), the local automated fermenter control system engineered by Sartorius BBI Systems GmbH, has a software module for gravimetric flow control. Reservoir bottles or medium bags are placed on laboratory balances or industrial weighing platforms, and the software module continuously evaluates these weights. The DCU processes the weight reduction over time and controls the pump rate of a peri staltic pump according to the feed rate defined by the operator. High-resolution balances or scales enable highly accurate metering of substrate feed. Control of this substrate feed directly affects the metabolism of the culture used.
Along with the MFCS/win fermenter super visory control system from Sartorius BBI Systems, control algorithms can be easily defined by the user to optimally adapt the process status depending on the particular growth curve. As a result, this ensures reliable process control with high yield.
As a rule, fermentation systems are designed and assembled to meet customer-specific requirements. Weighing devices are integrat ed into the overall system design. Thus, for instance, all permanently installed inlet and outlet piping has to be mechanically decou pled, and all components have to meet the quality requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. Especially when it comes to complex fermentation weighing systems, Sartorius combines the wide-ranging expertise of engineers and process specialists at Sartorius BBI Systems, Sartorius Hamburg GmbH and Sartorius AG. This applies not only to fermentation weighing and lab oratory bioprocesses, but also to industrial weighing technology.
If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Michael Koch, Senior Process Engineer/ fermentation weighing Systems, or Ms. Gundula Lichau, Corporate Communica tions (+49.5561.71.3911 or 3922), or mark the Reader Service Code shown below.
batching balance used with the BIOSTAT B-DCU laboratory fermenter Load cell from Sartorius Hamburg GmbH, type PR 6211/22D1, on the fermenter Load cell from Sartorius Hamburg GmbH, type PR 6211/22D1, integrated into the foot of the fermenter
