Modeling of Clavulanic Acid Production from Streptomyces clavuligerus using a Continuous Operation Mode

Abstract

Clavulanic acid is a β-lactam inhibitor produced by fermentation with Streptomyces clavuligerus cells, and it is usually used to prevent resistance to certain antibiotics. However, CA production is limited at the bioreactor level due to its low performance. The latter generates expensive processes and challenging to operate on a large scale. In this research, a mathematical model is proposed to simulate the clavulanic acid production from an operation strategy based on continuous mode. The preceding, to identify trends allowing to improve the productivity of the mentioned metabolite. Results are compared to the traditional operating batch mode. According to the results found, the final concentration of the β-lactam inhibitor could be increased by up to 60% regarding the simulated data in batch mode. Results obtained demonstrate the importance of computational techniques in bioprocess engineering since bioprocess simulation focuses on identifying critical operating parameters as a starting point in antibiotic production optimization.