WHEN SCALE UP IS NOT A SCALE UP….

The common term scale up in fermentation technology has been used frequently without really understanding the true meaning of scaling up. This state of confusion has often resulted in studies which are not really scale up but just ordinary fermentation research.
The objective of scaling up studies is to reproduce the same conditions of fermentation efficiency even though there is a great increase in the volume of the fermentor. Scale up is the well planned exercise passing through various stages of increasing volume so as to achieve the industrial production scale with full confidence.
The scale up exercise strictly speaking does not include the stages at the level of inocula development, Petri dish and shake flasks studies. This stage is still considered the preparation or the basic research studies that will ultimately lead to scale up studies
In scale up studies the increase in the volume of fermentors are increased by magnitudes rather than arithmetical increase. But what I have seen in the scale up laboratories or fermentation plant, the type of fermentors used in scale up generally are not designed for scale up! And yet they are very proud in declaring they have a battery of fermentors that can be used as scale up!
IGNORANCE IS BLISS!


Type rest of the post here.