Development of a novel membrane aerated hollow-fiber microbioreactor

A new challenge in biotechnological processes is the development of flexible bioprocessing platforms, allowing strain selection, facilitating scale-up and integrating separation steps. Miniaturization of such a cultivation system allows parallel use and the saving of resources but makes the supply of oxygen to the cells difficult. In this work we present a membrane aerated hollow-fiber microbioreactor (HFMBR) which consists of an acrylic glass module equipped with two different types of membrane fibers. Fibers of polyethersulfone and polyvinyldifluoride were used for substrate and oxygen supply, respectively. Cultivation of E. coli as model organism and production of His-tagged GFP were carried out in the extracapillary space of the membrane aerated HFMBR and compared with cultivations in shaking flask which are commonly used for screening experiments. The measurement of the oxygen transfer capacity and the online monitoring of the dissolved oxygen during the cultivation were performed using a fiber optic oxygen sensor. Online measurement of the optical density was also integrated to the bioreactor. Due to efficient oxygen transfer, a better cell growth than in the shaking flask experiments was achieved, while no negative influence on the GFP productivity was observed in the membrane aerated bioreactor. Thus the feasibility of a future integrated downstreaming could also be demonstrated.