Cost-efficient downstream processing strategy of microbial biomass harvesting

Despite the raising interest of scientific public and industrial sector for development of bio-based microbial products, high production costs represents a great obstacle to their potential commercialization. In addition to a high investment cost for the equipment necessary for up-stream bioprocessing, downstream processing cost make up to 60% of the overall production cost, while the formulation step is usually a bottleneck for successful commercialization. Therefore the following research will address the downstream phase of bioprocesses development. Flocculation is a method of biomass harvesting considered as low-cost, time-saving, and highly efficient. Present-day, there is a desire to use natural biopolymers as flocculants in the transition to a sustainable production. Due to the fact that there is no comprehensive theory for the right flocculants selection or their behavior prediction, within this research various biodegradable natural flocculating agents (e.g. chitosan, starch, tannin, cellulose, egg shells etc.) will be analyzed to be used as potential active components carriers in the final microbial product formulation. The natural flocculating agents’ selection criteria will be based on the flocculation performance, potential beneficial and synergistic effects with active components, availability, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of their application. The optimization of the flocculation method will be performed aiming the maximization of microbial separation efficiency, as well as beneficial effects. Further down-stream strategy development will include examination of dead-end and cross-flow microfiltration joined with flocculation.

Development of cost-effective methods that will preserve viability and provide high efficiency of the active components is challenging from a scientific aspect. Within this project a unique “from flocculation to formulation” approach will be applied.  Also, improvement of the production process, as well as the multiple functions of the end product that we develop by the aforementioned approach, will facilitate attracting interest of the manufacturers of bio-based products intended for agricultural applications, as well as agricultural producers as the end users.