Investigation of physiological limits and conditions for robust bioprocessing of an extreme halophilic archaeon using external cell retention system

• Quantitative bioprocess development with extreme halophiles.
• Use of an external hollow fibre membrane for increasing volumetric productivity.
• Introduction of feed and bleed strategy for robust continuous bioprocessing.
• Realizing 10-fold volumetric productivity increase compared to continuous cultures.
• Optimizing the cross flow rate by minimizing the release of halophilic macromolecules.

High biological activity and volumetric productivity are considered as prerequisites for efficient bioprocesses, extreme halophilic Archaea have, however, lower growth rates, for which reason halophilic Archaea are so far not used in industrial bioprocesses. To overcome this physiological limit and to achieve increased volumetric productivity, the produced biomass must be retained in a bioreactor, for example equipped with an external cell retention system. In this study, the characterization and parameterization of a bioreactor setup with cell retention was carried out with an extreme halophilic archaeon. Bioprocess quantification was used to demonstrate the process controllability. Focussing on maximizing the volumetric productivity; 10-fold productivity increase was achieved compared to chemostat continuous cultures. Circulation of the broth between the bioreactor and the membrane unit can be however challenging from physiological points-of-view. Hence, operating the system with external cell retention at optimal cross flow rate is physiologically essential: at lower cross flow rates, higher extracellular protein concentrations were measured due to oxygen limitation. In turn, at higher cross flow rates, shear stress reasoned higher concentrations of DNA fragments. This work contributes in a pioneering way to the bioprocess development of extreme halophilic Archaea by optimizing continuous laboratory scale processes regarding robustness and scalability.

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