THE USE OF ULTRAFILTRATION AND COLUMN LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR ONLINE FERMENTATION MONITORING

The applicability of ultrafiltration and column liquid chromatography for the on-line and automated monitoring of small organic compounds du ring fermentation processes is reviewed. The influence of the construc tion of the filtration device, the properties of the membrane, the typ e of sample and the filtration mode on the sampling efficiency is disc ussed. In addition, different approaches for determining key component s in fermentation samples, including the possibilities to increase the sensitivity and/or selectivity of the analytical procedure, are addre ssed. To illustrate the usefulness of employing online systems, the mo nitoring of a number of quite different fermentation processes is show n.