One article on understanding industrial fermentation
The phenomenon of fermentation has long been recognized by people, but understanding its essence has been a thing of the past 200 years. The word 'fermentation' in English is derived from the Latin word 'ferrere' and originally means' churning '. It describes the phenomenon of yeast acting on juice or malt extract. The boiling phenomenon is caused by the degradation of sugars in the leachate under anaerobic conditions, resulting in the production of carbon dioxide. In biochemistry, the anaerobic respiration process of yeast is called fermentation.
The fermentation we are referring to now has already been given different meanings. Fermentation is a chemical reaction and physiological change carried out by living organisms. It is a process of various biochemical reactions that continuously break down and synthesize based on the genetic information of living organisms themselves, in order to obtain energy to maintain life activities.
Fermentation products refer to substances produced during the reaction process or at the end of the reaction that can regulate metabolism to achieve equilibrium. In fact, fermentation is also a type of respiration, but respiration ultimately produces CO2 and water, while fermentation ultimately obtains various metabolic products. Therefore, the modern definition of fermentation should be: a reaction process in which specialized metabolites are produced and accumulated in large quantities through the growth, cultivation, and chemical changes of microorganisms (or animal and plant cells).
The narrow definition of "fermentation" in biochemistry or physiology refers to a way in which microorganisms decompose various organic substances to produce energy under anaerobic conditions, or more strictly speaking, fermentation is a redox energy production reaction that uses organic substances as electron acceptors. Glucose is utilized by microorganisms under anaerobic conditions to produce alcohol and release carbon dioxide. Simultaneously obtaining energy, pyruvate is reduced to lactate to obtain energy, and so on.
The definition of Fermentation Engineering is a science that applies natural sciences and engineering principles related to microbiology, using microorganisms and other biological cells for enzymatic conversion to transform raw materials into products or provide social services.
The biggest difference between fermentation and other chemical industries is that it is a chemical reaction carried out by living organisms. Its main characteristics are as follows: 1. The fermentation process is generally a biochemical reaction carried out at room temperature and pressure, which is safe and requires relatively simple conditions.
Based on the above characteristics, industrial fermentation is increasingly attracting people's attention. Compared with traditional fermentation processes, modern fermentation engineering has its own advantages in addition to the fermentation characteristics mentioned above. In addition to using microorganisms, reactions can also be carried out using animal and plant cells and enzymes, as well as artificially constructed "engineered bacteria". The reaction equipment is not just a conventional fermentation tank, but is replaced by various bioreactors, with a high degree of automation and continuity, which improves and innovates the fermentation level on the original basis.
According to the characteristics of fermentation and the different oxygen requirements of microorganisms, fermentation can be divided into several types:
Differentiate by fermentation raw materials: sugar fermentation, petroleum fermentation, and wastewater fermentation. Differentiate by fermentation products, such as amino acid fermentation, organic acid fermentation, antibiotic fermentation, alcohol fermentation, vitamin fermentation, etc.
Components of Fermentation Process Components of Fermentation Process Composition of Breeding Seeds and Culture Media Used in Fermentation Production; Sterilization of culture media, fermentation tanks, and their associated equipment; Cultivate active and appropriate purebred seeds and inoculate them into production containers;
Microorganisms grow in fermentation tanks under the most suitable conditions for product growth; Extraction and refining of products; The disposal of waste generated during the process.