Aerobic fermentation of saccharomeyes cerevisae in a miniature bioreactor made of low cost poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and Poly(Dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) Polymers

Abstract

In this paper, a minibioreactor platform made of low cost polymers is presented. The minibioreactor prototype was designed as an alternative solution for carrying out microbial fermentation experiments in laboratory. The minibioreactor prototype has a working volume of 1.5 mL and was fabricated from poly(methylmethacrylate) ( PMMA ) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) ( PDMS ) polymers. Cell density was measured online whilst agitation rates and the temperature of the reactor content can be tightly controlled to desired set-point values. As proof-of-concept, various S. cerevisae fermentation experiments were conducted. In every experiment, the minibioreactor operated stably for the entire length of operation which was nearly 40 h with very minimal volume loss i.e. about 2.8 μ L·h -1 at 37 º C. The minibioreactor has the maximum oxygen transfer rate ( OTR ) of 16.6 mmol·L -1 ·h -1 under the agitation rate of 300 rpm. Under these conditions, cell specific growth rate as high as 0.291 h -1 was obtained. The experimental data in the minibioreactor operation was also reproducible using shake flask where similar growth profiles were attained under a similar growth conditions.