• Lipnizki, Frank
• Nilsson, Mattias

Abstract

Membrane processes, antibiotics, enzymes, biofuels and biochemicals<br/><br/>The end of the 20th century was marked by the start of the third and so far final wave of biotechnology, the so-called white biotechnology, aiming to substitute chemical processes based on C2/C3 chemistry of oil and gas by biotechnological processes. The standard conversion process in biotechnology is fermentation, which is used to produce a wide range of bulk products such antibiotics, enzyme to bioethanol and organic acids. Cross-flow membrane processes were introduced to down-stream processing of fermentation products in the 1970ies and became since then a standard unit of operation for the recovery and purification of fermentation products. This presentation will provide an overview on the current status of membrane processes in the bulk fermentation looking on the established applications such as antibiotics, enzymes and organic acids but also on the latest trend in the bulk fermentation industry - biorefineries. Biorefineries are integrated biotech facilities aiming on full utilization of feedstock for the simultaneous production of i.e. food, biofuels and biochemicals. Examples are the integrated production of biofuels and/or biopolymers from sugar and/or cellulose-based feedstock as part of sugar factories or pulp mills.In all these new concepts, membranes can play a significant role as highly selective and low-energy separation processes. Overall this presentation will show how cross-flow membrane processes have established themselves in the bulk fermentation industry and current research efforts will hopefully support its future growth. <br/>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• cellulose
• fermentation