Views: 310 Author: LENOTANK Publish Time: 2025-09-14 Origin: Site
Fermentation engineering involves a comprehensive process that transforms raw materials into final products through three key stages: upstream, midstream, and downstream.
1. **Upstream Processes**:
- Focus on cultivating high-quality strains and optimizing fermentation conditions such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient composition.
- High-quality strains are selected for rapid growth, high productivity, and resistance to phages, often enhanced through techniques like mutagenesis or recombinant DNA technology.
- Preparation of culture media, sterilization, and aseptic handling of seeds are critical steps.
2. **Midstream Processes**:
- Involve mass-culturing cells in fermenters under controlled conditions, including sterilization of equipment and air filtration.
- Fermentation methods include batch, fed-batch, and continuous processes, tailored to specific production needs.
- Optimization of fermentation conditions and scalability from laboratory to industrial production is a key challenge.
3. **Downstream Processes**:
- Focus on extracting and purifying the target product from fermentation broth, which often contains low concentrations of the desired product.
- Techniques include solid-liquid separation, cell disruption, protein purification, and advanced drying methods like vacuum or freeze-drying.
- Post-processing is crucial, as improper handling can diminish yields despite high fermentation success.
This structured approach ensures efficient scaling and high-quality production in fermentation engineering.