Continuous Culture

Continuous culture is just a type of open cultivation in which the development of a cell is maintained in an operation mode that is continuous. It is a type of open cultivation technique in which the latest nutrient medium is introduced to the culture vessel continuously, and there is no need for nutrients or substrate to be recycled or reused. There is an input pump in a continuous cultivation system that allows the aseptic nutrient medium to enter through a reservoir on a continuous basis. An outflow pump continuously avoids the surplus of cells and by-products of the medium.

What Is the Process of Continuous Culture?

An open system is particularly set up in an environment of continuous culture. In this environment, they are provided by one or more feed streams carrying the essential nutrients, while the outflow stream holds the cells, products, and remaining waste, which is continuously rejected. Maintaining an identical volume of flow rate for the feed and outflow streams establishes a constant state. All nutrient compositions are held at slow-state levels, and the culture volume is kept constant. The exponential growth phase throughout the procedure is prolonged, and the generation of extra products is preserved.

Microbial growth activity or by-product generation is used to monitor fermentation, which should be continuous, and these processes involve

A. Turbidostat method

In this method, cell growth is regulated and steady, but the pace at which fresh medium is delivered changes.

While a new medium is continually provided, cell density is regulated based on a defined value for turbidity, which is formed by the cell population.

B. Chemostat method

The nutrients are continually provided at a constant flow rate in a chemostat, and the density of the cells is changed based on the essential nutrients for growth supplied.

The growth rate of a chemostat is controlled by altering the concentration of substrates such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Continuous tubular reactor

The solution of continuous culture goes through a reactor that is tubular and is not mixed back into this kind of continuous culture.

In a plug flow reactor, nutrients that are reactants enter the reactor as “plugs’ ‘ that flow in a lengthwise direction through the reactor.

What are the limitations of continuous culture?

Sterility maintenance can be difficult in the long-term culture phase, and downstream processing might be difficult.

It is a very tough task to keep track of the manufacturing process of some related goods that are in a non-growth state. As a result, continuous culture frequently comes in handy for both fed-batch culturing and continuous nutrient input.

Due to the viscosity and heterogeneity of the mixture, it may be difficult to keep filamentous organisms alive.

It’s possible that the original product strain will be lost over time if a faster-growing strain overtakes it.

Conclusion

Constant working volume in continuous culture is maintained, which facilitates culture upgrade using a power-to-volume method that is constant.

There is a possibility to create the perfect conditions for maximum product synthesis. It has the ability to maintain a high level of product consistency, and the production per unit volume increases day by day.

Steady state cultures can last for days or even months, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency.

To keep cells in a growing position, two tools are required. The first is a chemostat and the second is a turbidostat. Both a chemostat and a turbidostat must meet certain characteristics, such as:

1. Cell density, which is constant, is
2. Microbial cell growth requires a constant state.
3. There is a constant change in the media and cell phones.

This has brought the result that continuous culture is preferred over other cultural techniques. developing cells because the microbial cell is in its logarithmic phase, a lot of output is produced. The phase of logging is characterised by more metabolic activities. Due to this, cells transform substrates into products.