STUDIES ON CONTINUOUS FERMENTATION PART 2.

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE MEAN CUMULATIVE-AGE OF MULTI-CELLULAR MICROBES AND THEIR ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Continuous fermentations of different species of mycelia have been studied by many workers. The concept of the mean cumulative microbial age which was defined and derived previously was used to study the relation between the continuous and the batch runs in the same fermentations. If such a relations can be established it will be useful for the design and operations of a continuous fermentation. But this relation cannot be made clear in situ from the published data on the continuous operations starting initially from a batch run in the mycelial fermentations.
The data regarding two different kinds of mycelial fermentation were reanalyzed from the viewpoint of the microbial age. When the data were reassessed from this point of view and so far as the data referred to in this paper were concerned, there were no marked differences between the microbial activities in the batch and the continuous runs in the two examples cited.
It is not justified to apply this conclusion in all other similar fermentations. However, the analysis attempted here may provide a clue to designing a continuous fermentation, if the requirement of the design is based primarily on the performance of batch runs in a specific multi-cellular fermentation.