Performance of industrial scale bioreactors with modified RUSHTON turbine agitators

Abstract

Abstract The data presented here with respect to the behaviour of industrial scale stirred tank bioreactors equipped with modified RUSHTON turbine agitators in the biosynthesis processes of antibiotics are valid for that case that the power consumption is the same as it is in standard RUSHTON turbine agitators. Each modified RUSHTON turbine agitator was obtained through the variation of the blade surface by adding perforations so that the ratio between the perforation surface area and the full surface area (or the surface fraction of the perforations) is 0.36. In the fermentations of Streptomyces aureofaciens, Streptomyces rimosus and Penicillium chrysogenum producing tetracycline, oxytetracyline and penicillin, respectively, in bioreactors equipped with modified RUSHTON turbine agitators, the relative antibiotic production is increased by more than 30% compared to standard bioreactors.