- Fermenter = the reaction vessel in which fermentation occurs.
- the vessel is usually built of metal, e.g. copper, steel, etc.
- normally, there is another steel jacket inside the first steel jacket
- in between the two jackets, there is water = cooling jacket. once a fermentation gets going, it produces heat and the water cools down the reaction so it occurs at optimum conditions.
- the fermenter needs to be clean and therefore, there is an inlet. Steam goes through the inlet and it will be sterilizing the fermenter between fermentations.
- within the fermenter, there is a heating plate to raise the temperature.
- the heater and the cooling jacket allows us to control the optimum conditions for fermentation.
- there is a tap/pipe work to insert nutrients
- there is a temperature probe = it will tell us whether to deploy the heater or the cooling jacket
- the reaction require addition of organisms, therefore, there will be another tap for it.
- a pH probe is also required - to monitor and keep it at the optimum temperature to get the maximum rate of reaction
- to stir the reaction, a motor is required and this will agitate the mixture, stopping it from clumping together
- the idea of the fermenter is to create a reaction centre in which we control the optimum growth conditions for the micro-organism so that it will be able to produce the product that we are looking for
- at the end of the reaction, the important thing is to find a way to drain off the product which would then go on to the process called down stream processing which involves purification
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