On the nonideality of chemostat operation using plant cell suspension cultures

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Abstract
Chemostats designed for continuous cultivation of plant cells, unlike traditional fermenters, generally use sparging alone for mixing. The residence times for cells and for surrounding medium are different under conditions of incomplete mixing. This paper identifies a mixing parameter, Ce/Cav (which is the exit cell concentration divided by the average cell concentration in the reactor), as a function of operational and system variables, airflow rate, nozzle diameter and placement, and concentration of cells for a chemostat of the design suggested by Wilson. When Ce/Cav is not equal to 1, traditional chemostat theory cannot be used. A correlation between specific growth rate μ, Ce/Cav, and dilution rate, D, has also been derived for the case of incomplete cellular mixing.