YSI 2730 on-line monitoring system accurately monitors and adjusts nutrient and by-product concentrations in the food industry, without interrupting the fermentation process
A saving in time or money that leaves the end product unchanged is a production manager's dream.
To this end, YSI says its 2730 on-line monitoring system is proving invaluable to many companies in the food industry.
In the food industry, enzymes are key to maintaining product quality and process efficiencies and new fermentation protocols are continually being developed.
As the level of both nutrients and by-products is critical for maximum productivity, careful monitoring is essential in order to control cell growth and enzyme yield throughout fermentation.
In certain fermentations, the key nutrients, such as glucose, must be in adequate supply, but must not be allowed to accumulate - it is vital for the cells to achieve a high biomass and produce the protein that they have been engineered to express.
In other fermentations, in addition to controlling glucose, it may be essential to control the accumulation of a by-product, such as ethanol.
The by-product may be required to promote expression of a protein at the correct moment in the process.
By utilising the YSI 2730 on-line monitoring system in conjunction with the YSI 2700 biochemistry analyser, scientists are able to accurately monitor and adjust nutrient and by-product concentrations without interrupting the fermentation process.
This 'round-the-clock' sampling takes place under aseptic conditions and therefore poses no contamination risk.
The YSI 2700 is a flexible dual channel analyser that allows customers to select from a choice of nine key chemistries.
Fast, sensitive and easy to operate, the system can be used as a stand-alone analyser or linked to the YSI 2730 on-line monitoring system for automatic sampling at pre-programmed intervals.
According to the scientists that use the YSI 2700, the major benefit is rapid analysis during fermentation.
The alternative method of samples being removed and analysed later, means that further fermentations are needed to be carried out in order to achieve the optimised conditions.
The YSI system, however, provides rapid results within a couple of minutes, allowing immediate action to be taken and preventing any wasted reactions.
This contrasts with off-line monitoring techniques such as HPLC or spectrometry, which typically involve a 10-20 minute time lag due to sample preparation and incubation before the necessary data for altering the parameters becomes available.