Continuous fermentation (chemostat)
MINIFOR provides a high quality, inexpensive & automatic weight-control solution for continuous cultures (chemostat).
A scale adaptor (optional) allows weighing of the fermentor. It is simply placed under the front part of the fermentor body and connected to the X-channel input of the fermentor. By means of a pump connected to the ”Pump X”-socket of the fermentor, the weight (volume) of the culture can be kept constant. The harvesting pump will automatically keep the weight of the culture constant. This function is included in the start-up kit already. This allows the running of continuous cultures at low cost.
Continuous cultures = LAMBDA MINIFOR fermentor-bioreactor + Feed Pump + Harvest Pump + Weighing module
Features of LAMBDA Chemostat
- Scale module can be placed readily under the front part of MINIFOR fermentor and bioreactor, to control the weight and consequently the amount of culture
- Weight control independent of agitation, aeration, temperature, foaming, gas uptake & pressure
- Efficient optimization of experiments in hours instead of days / weeks
- Considerably higher productivity, e.g., yield of 3L continuous culture is equal to 30L batch culture
- High quality, reliable and variable speed programmable peristaltic pumps specially developed for long term continuous processes
- Peristaltic pumps with constant and reproducible flow rates for several weeks, without the risk of tubing rupture or other malfunctions (turbidostat, chemostat)
- Precise & high quality weight control with GLP and GMP conform
Why Chemostat?
Continuous cultures (chemostat) allow a considerable increase in productivity, faster optimization of experiments and at lower cost. In an equilibrated dilution state, culture parameters can be studied more efficiently than in a batch.
If larger amounts of biomass should be occasionally produced, then for example with a 3 liter vessel, in a continuous run, a productivity of a 30 liter batch system or even more can be attained!
Therefore, all LAMBDA MINIFOR bioreactors and fermenters are electronically prepared for the reception of a low cost scale module, which allows running high quality continuous culture with constant culture weight. This is not achieved by the frequently proposed cheap solutions of using overflow tubes, draft tubes and the like. In not weight controlled vessels the effective amount of culture can vary considerably when agitation or aeration is changed. In such cases, no quantitative conclusions can be made.