IMPLICATIONS OF BIOFOULING OF SURFACES IN FERMENTATION INDUSTRIES

In nature,microbes generally do not occur as individual independent cells. There is the tendency for the microbes to form colonies or aggregates. One form of microbial aggregates commonly found in nature and in fermentation industries are the formation of microbial film or biofoulings.
It is not difficult to understand why microbial films occur especially in systems which provide surfaces for the attachment of the microbes. Other requirements include the presence of water and nutrients. It is only a matter of time when fresh surfaces will be colonized by the microbes or the surfaces undergo biofoulings.
In the fermentation industries the above requirements are easily met. The fermentation systems have lots of surfaces to be colonized by the microbes ranging from the surfaces of fermentors to the various valves and pipes servicing the fermentor
The presence of these biofoulings can constitute serious problems that affect the efficiency of the fermentation industries such as:
1 Microbial induced corrosion, biofouling of probes, sensors and electrodes
2 Pipe cloggings resulting in reduce flow
3 Heat exchangers
4 Microbial contaminations of the fermentation process
5 Wear and tear of pumps
6 Higher energy usage and repairs
7 Loss if downtime of fermentors in repairing and cleaning the biofoulings
All of these factors contributing to increase in costs!!
Preventing and solving the problems of biofoulings in fermentation industries is therefore crucial to the fermentation process


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