Above is the most obvious difference between the industrial and laboratory growing of penicillin and I will now be talking about the differences and why they are like this.
- Ph Sensor: - Ph Sensors are a robust epoxy bodied electrode ideal for educational
use as well as industry use. Ph sensors consist of a standard electrode
capable of measuring the full to 0 to 14 Ph range. The Ph sensor is
is there to identify and maintain the neutral level of the solution. And
this is why industry uses it.
- Air Supply: - In the industry they use a pipe that supplies the fermenter with
Oxygen, this is so that the yeast culture have a lot more oxygen and
They will perform respiration and the process of fermentation will
Quicken, the oxygen acts as a catalyst for the yeast culture. In the
Laboratory there is no pump used for the extra amount of oxygen,
Why? This is unknown but it could be perhaps it is expensive.
- Thermometer: - A thermometer is used in the industry so that they are able to
Identify if the temperatures are too low or too high, this is helpful to them because now if them temperature of the fermenter becomes too high this could kill of the yeast population and they would then have dispose of all the solution and restart the fermentation process, so the thermometer is really helpful to the industry. A thermometer is not used in a laboratory because they would rather use cheaper equipment probably and choose not to use a thermometer.
- Batch/Culture Industry: - In the industry they use something called contous
Culture and what this means is to grow the culture and
Then they will be able to repeatedly use the same
Culture over and over again, so it’s basically like
Recycling the yeast culture and in a laboratory they use
Something called batch culture which means that they
Yeast culture is grown, used once and then killed.
- Food Supply: - When scientist do fermentation in the laboratory they would often
Feed the yeast culture only once and that would be in the beginning of the experiment, and from this point on the yeast population will not be fed again, but on the other hand in the scientific industry they would do something called food replenishment, which basically means to continually feed the yeast population probably daily or weekly, this way they yeast wont ever run out of food and the yeast culture is being used again and again so its just one cycle.
Above are only the equipment that the science industry use when they use fermentation, I will now write about the added features that the industry fermenter has equipped onto itself and why they use it.
- Exit Gas and Exit Liquid Flow: - In scientific industry they have a exit gas and
Exit liquid flow and this is to allow the waste
From the yeast culture to escape without any
Harm being done to the yeast population, the
Exit gas works in a way whereas when the yeast
Culture is feeding off the glucose and also
Respiring, the waste from the yeast, which is
Carbon dioxide (CO²) is being passed through a
Tube (exit gas flow) and this way the yeast will
Be unharmed from the gas, the gas CO² is able
To poison the yeast population.
- Antifoam: - I done research on how the antifoam that is equipped to the industry
Fermenter works but I was unable to find anything that would of helped me in this assignment, so I will now be explaining the antifoam from my own knowledge. The antifoam does what it says, it prevents the fermenter from foaming up when the reactions are taking place but the fermenter will only foam up after a period of days and I am guessing that the antifoam is to keep the surface of the solution as clear as possible so that they will be able to identify if the process of fermentation has actually taken place yet, it is a smart device and this is all that I can possibly say about it.
- Fresh Media Feed: - A fresh media feed is when the scientific industry just
Repeatedly feeds the yeast population on a regular basis and this is so that they don’t die through hunger. In order for yeast to stay alive they must have food (glucose), oxygen and most probably moisture to stay alive.
Quality and Quantity of Product:
Another thing that is different from the scientific industry and laboratory is the quality and the quantity of the product. In a laboratory they only use a small amount of yeast culture and sugar to perform their fermentation, but for the scientific industry they use a huge amount of yeast culture and sugar, also when they are using their yeast culture, they always ensure that it is a pure culture of yeast cells, this is so that it helps them reach their specifications, because the industry would like to try and obtain 100% success, perfect fermentation! They cannot allow anything to go wrong at all when they are performing the fermentation, this is because the solution is quite delicate and it can become infected and then they will have the start the process straight from the beginning again, this is why in the industry they use pure culture, it lessens the chance of it becoming infected and also it helps them to achieve something close enough to 100%, their specification!
Also, in the scientific industry they do something called ‘quality control’ this is basically what it says it is, it is to control the quality of the product by taking samples of the product along the processing of it, for example the diagram below fully explains what quality control is and how it works.
- Three or so samples of the product are taken and then checked if it is within tolerance and if so they continue with the production of the product.
- If the product is not within tolerance then they will make adjustments to the product and try and make it as good as possible than before, they will then run the production again and check if it is within tolerance.
- And the whole cycle starts again!
