Process for the production of useful cultures and/or metabolites

Claim 2

A process for stimulating the growth of a microorganism culture in a series of growth zones and withdrawing metabolites produced by said culture from a said growth zone, said process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing a microorganism culture comprising an inoculum and a liquid nutrient medium to the upper end of a tower-like production unit divided into a generally vertical series of tray-like growth zones, whereby said culture is introduced by the uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, each said growth zone having a drain opening and being subdivided into substantially liquid-tight, continuously moving, movable segments for continuously agitating the thus-introduced culture in said zone and for advancing said culture toward said drain opening; (b) advancing in a said movable segment, said culture toward said drain opening in said uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (c) obtaining gravity flow of said culture through said drain opening into a movable segment of the next lowest or next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (d) repeating said steps (b) and (c) in said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, thereby obtaining gravity flow to a movable segment of the next lowest tray-like growth zone below said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (e) further repeating said steps (b) and (c) in successively lower tray-like growth zones until substantial multiplication of the microorganisms in said culture has been obtained; (f) withdrawing a portion of said culture from a said tray-like growth zone and circulating the thus-withdrawn portion to a higher tray-like growth zone; and (g) withdrawing said metabolites from at least one of said tray-like growth zones.

Claim 3

A process according to claim 1 wherein said liquid nutrient medium comprises a material selected from a group consisting of a carbohydrate and a glycoside; said material is metabolized by the microorganisms in said culture, the metabolic process of said microorganisms being fermentive in nature; and said metabolites withdrawn according to said step (g) are concentrated and recovered.

Claim 4

A process according to claim 1 wherein each said growth zone is generally cylindrical and is divided into substantially fluid-tight, continuous moving, movable segments of less than 180° each.

Claim 5

A continous process for the production of useful metabolites from a carbohydrate-containing nutrient medium by fermentation of said medium, said process comprising the steps of: (a) continously introducing a microorganism culture comprising a inoculum and said nutrient medium to the upper end of a tower-like fermentor sealed off from the ambient atmosphere and divided into a vertical series of generally cylindrical fermentation zones arranged generally vertically along the vertical axis of said tower-like fermentor, each said fermentation zone being divided into substantially liquid-tight, continously rotating segments, whereby said culture is initially introduced into a continuously rotating segment of the first and uppermost of said fermentation zones; (b) continously rotating said continuously rotating segment at least about three-fourths of a revolution to a gravity flow transfer means for transferring the culture to the second and next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones, the retention time in a higher fermentation zone ranging from about 1 to about 100 minutes; (c) continuously transferring said culture by gravity flow to a continuously rotating segment of the said second and next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones, the retention time in said next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones being generally equal to the retention time in said uppermost fermentation zone; (d) continuing the transfer of said culture by gravity flow to continuously rotating segments of successively lower fermentation zones at least until such culture is in a logarithmic growth phase; (e) continuously withdrawing a portion of the culture in the logarithmic growth phase from a said lower fermentation zone before the concentration of metabolites in the culture reaches a level high enough to stop growth of the culture, and pumping the thus-withdrawn portion at a gauge pressure below about one atmosphere to said first and uppermost fermentation zone without exposing said thus-withdrawn portion to the ambient atmosphere or to contamination with extraneous microorganisms; (f) withdrawing metabolites from at least the lowest of said fermentation zones without exposure of said zone to the ambient atmosphere or to contamination with extraneous microorganisms; and (g) recovering useful metabolities from the thus-withdrawn metabolites.

Claim 6

A continous process for the production of useful metabolites from a carbohydrate-containing nutrient medium by fermentation of said medium, said process comprising the steps of: (a) continously introducing a microorganism culture comprising a inoculum and said nutrient medium to the upper end of a tower-like fermentor sealed off from the ambient atmosphere and divided into a vertical series of generally cylindrical fermentation zones arranged generally vertically along the vertical axis of said tower-like fermentor, each said fermentation zone being divided into substantially liquid-tight, continously rotating segments, whereby said culture is initially introduced into a continuously rotating segment of the first and uppermost of said fermentation zones; (b) continously rotating said continuously rotating segment at least about three-fourths of a revolution to a gravity flow transfer means for transferring the culture to the second and next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones, the retention time in a higher fermentation zone ranging from about 1 to about 100 minutes; (c) continuously transferring said culture by gravity flow to a continuously rotating segment of the said second and next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones, the retention time in said next-to-uppermost of said fermentation zones being generally equal to the retention time in said uppermost fermentation zone; (d) continuing the transfer of said culture by gravity flow to continuously rotating segments of successively lower fermentation zones at least until such culture is in a logarithmic growth phase; (e) continuously withdrawing a portion of the culture in the logarithmic growth phase from a said lower fermentation zone before the concentration of metabolites in the culture reaches a level high enough to stop growth of the culture, and pumping the thus-withdrawn portion at a gauge pressure below about one atmosphere to said first and uppermost fermentation zone without exposing said thus-withdrawn portion to the ambient atmosphere or to contamination with extraneous microorganisms; (f) withdrawing metabolites from at least the lowest of said fermentation zones without exposure of said zone to the ambient atmosphere or to contamination with extraneous microorganisms; and (g) recovering useful metabolities from the thus-withdrawn metabolites.

Claim 7

A process according to claim 3 wherein each fermentation zone is divided into substantially fluid-tight, continuously rotating segments of less than 90° each, and each fermentation zone is constantly draining liquid medium from a constantly open drain opening.

Claim 8

A process according to claim 4 wherein said microorganism culture comprises brewer's yeast and a hydrolyzed starch-containing aqueous nutrient medium.

Claim 9

A process according to claim 4 wherein the thus-withdrawn metabolites include a lower alkanol and carbon dioxide.

Claim 10

A process according to claim 7 wherein a beer containing a lower alkanol is withdrawn from the lower end of said tower-like fermentor, a lower alkanol in said beer is concentrated to at least about 40% by volume, and residual nutrient medium is recovered from said beer.

Claim 11

A process according to claim 7 wherein said continuously rotating segments rotate at the rate of about 0.01 to about 0.2 revolutions per minute.

Claim 12

A process according to claim 7 wherein the interior of said tower-like fermentor is under subatmospheric pressure, and carbon dioxide is withdrawn from each said fermentation zone in gaseous form.

Claim 13

A process for stimulating the growth of a microorganism culture in a series of growth zones and withdrawing metabolites produced by said culture from a said growth zone, said process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing a microorganism culture comprising an inoculum and a liquid nutrient medium to the upper end of a tower-like production unit divided into a generally vertical series of tray-like growth zones, whereby said culture is introduced to the uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, each said growth zone having a drain opening and being subdivided into substantially liquid-tight, continuously moving, movable segments for continously agitating the thus-introduced culture in said zone and for advancing said culture toward said drain opening; (b) advancing in a said movable segment, said culture toward said drain opening in said uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (c) obtaining gravity flow of said culture through said drain opening into a movable segment of the next lowest or next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (d) repeating said steps (b) and (c) in said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, thereby obtaining gravity flow to a movable segment of the next lowest tray-like growth zone below said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (e) further repeating said steps (b) and (c) in successively lower tray-like growth zones until substantial multiplication of the microorganisms in said culture has been obtained; (f) withdrawing a portion of said culture from a said tray-like growth zone; (g) withdrawing said metabolites from at least one of said tray-like growth zones; and (h) introducing partly metabolized nutrient material and microorganism cultures in a logarithmic growth phase into a higher tray-like growth zone, thereby increasing the ratio of live, mature, rapidly growing, metabolite-tolerant microorganisms to nutrient material in said higher tray-like growth zone and shortening any lag time in said growth zone.

Claim 14

A process for stimulating the growth of a microorganism culture in a series of growth zones and withdrawing metabolites produced by said culture from a said growth zone, said process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing a microorganism culture comprising an inoculum and a liquid nutrient medium to the upper end of a tower-like production unit divided into a generally vertical series of tray-like growth zones, whereby said culture is introduced to the uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, each said growth zone having a drain opening and being subdivided into substantially liquid-tight, continuously moving, movable segments for continously agitating the thus-introduced culture in said zone and for advancing said culture toward said drain opening; (b) advancing in a said movable segment, said culture toward said drain opening in said uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (c) obtaining gravity flow of said culture through said drain opening into a movable segment of the next lowest or next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (d) repeating said steps (b) and (c) in said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones, thereby obtaining gravity flow to a movable segment of the next lowest tray-like growth zone below said next-to-uppermost of said tray-like growth zones; (e) further repeating said steps (b) and (c) in successively lower tray-like growth zones until substantial multiplication of the microorganisms in said culture has been obtained; (f) withdrawing a portion of said culture from a said tray-like growth zone; (g) withdrawing said metabolites from at least one of said tray-like growth zones; and (h) introducing partly metabolized nutrient material and microorganism cultures in a logarithmic growth phase into a higher tray-like growth zone, thereby increasing the ratio of live, mature, rapidly growing, metabolite-tolerant microorganisms to nutrient material in said higher tray-like growth zone and shortening any lag time in said growth zone.

Claim 15

A process according to claim 11 wherein the ratio of nutrient material to microorganism culture in all of said tray-like growth zones is maintained within the range of about 1:1 to about 6:1.

Claim 16

A process according to claim 11 wherein each said growth zone is generally cylindrical and is divided into substantially fluid-tight, continuous moving, movable segments of less than 180° each.