The Importance of Defoamer Antifoam in Industrial Fermentation Processes
Foam, as an important by-product of the biofermentation process, occupies an important part of the control strategy during large-scale cell culture.
The selection of defoamers and the implementation of effective defoaming measures become essential steps for successful fermentation culture.
In the initial stages of cell culture, foam production is not high and tends to dissipate quickly; as cell density continues to multiply and supplementation continues to be added, foam production gradually increases and continues to accumulate at the liquid surface, and defoamers must be added to control the height of the foam, and even aeration strategies need to be altered to control foam production and to promote the collapse of the foam;
By the late stage of antibody protein production, with the change of cell growth and metabolic state, the cell number gradually decays, oxygen aeration decreases, and most of the culture will show less foam production, slower rate of foam accumulation and so on. Therefore, in the process of protein production with cells, according to the changes in foam generation at different stages, different antifoam additive strategies need to be adopted in the production process to achieve good foam control.
- Fermentation defoamer can reduce the surface tension of bubbles, leading to bubble bursting;
- Antifoam for fermentation industry can destroy the elasticity of the bubble film, leading to bubble rupture;
- Fermentation defoaming agent can effectively promote the discharge of the liquid film, resulting in the rupture of the foam;
- Hydrophobic solid particles can be added to the defoamer to break the bubble film;
- Antifoam to add capacitating surface-active substances, weakening the foam stability;
An excellent antifoam agent should have multiple functions such as foam breaking, defoaming, and foam inhibition. After the defoamer is added into the cell culture liquid, the foam-breaking component of the defoamer will quickly pierce the liquid membrane of the bubbles after contacting the bubbles to play the role of physical foam-breaking; the oily component will combine with the surface of the bubbles to reduce the surface tension of the bubbles to promote the merger of the bubbles and rupture; after the disappearance of the bubbles, the oily component will spread out to the surface of the liquid to form an oily film, so as to achieve the purpose of inhibiting the formation of bubbles.
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