Evaluation of Fixed-Bed Cultures with Immobilized Lactococcus Lactis ssp. Lactis on Different Scales

Abstract

Fixed-bed processes, where cells are immobilized within macroporous carriers, are a promising alternative to processes with suspended cells. A scale-up concept is presented in order to evaluate the performance as part of process design of fixed-bed processes. Therefore, Lactococcus lactis cultivation in chemostat and batch mode was compared to fixed bed cultures on three different scales, the smallest being the downscaled Multiferm with 10 mL fixed bed units, the second a 100 mL fixed-bed reactor and the third a pilot scale reactor with 1 L fixed bed volume. As expected, the volume specific lactate productivity of all cultivations was dependent on dilution rate. In suspension chemostat culture a maximum of 2.3 g·L^-1·h^-1 was reached. Due to cell retention in the fixed-beds, productivity increased up to 8.29 g·L^-1·h^-1 at a dilution rate of D = 1.16 h^-1 (corresponding to 2.4·µ_max) on pilot scale. For all fixed bed cultures a common spline was obtained indicating a good scale-up performance.