A comparative evaluation of cephalosporin -C production in stirred tank reactor and air lift reactor

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-font-family:" dejavu="" sans";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;color:#00000a;mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Cephalosporins group of antibiotics are more resistant to β lactamases than penicillins and are produced from cephalosporin - C (CPC), which is exclusively produced by fermentations. Many strains are used for the production of CPC. However, <i>Cephalosporium acremonium</i> is widely used because of its high yield The CPC production is a highly aerobic process. Sucrose was found to be the most suitable substrate at 30 g/L. The CPC production has been studied in 2.0 L stirred tank reactor (STR) and 1.4 L air lift reactor (ALR), and performance compared, using a working volume 1.0 L. The maximum specific growth rate was 0.045 and 0.037 h^-1 in STR and ALR respectively. The maximum cell mass concentrations were 685 mg L^-1 in ALBR and 780 mg L^-1 in STR. The specific antibiotic productivity based on power input (CPC/(P/ V) is higher by a factor of 2.4 in ALR than in STR.</span>