MAIN TRENDS IN IMPROVEMENT OF FERMENTATION EQUIPMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE.

In the author's opinion, future development of fermentation equipment for industrial medicine should go in two directions - development of fundamentally new equipment and improvement in design of the separate functional units of fermentation tanks with mechanical agitation in order to improve their efficiency and aseptic conditions. Since 1971 equipment of capacity 200 m**3 with an airlift agitation system has been in operation for the production of nutrient biomycin on a mycelial culture. The users are satisfied with the operation of this equipment and point out only one shortcoming - small surface of heat exchange. However, equipment design also has disadvantages from the point of view of providing efficient agitation and mass exchange throughout the whole volume of the apparatus. It is generally acknowledged that airlift column equipment is economic, simple and convienient in both manufacture and service. It is shown that there is a growing trend towards the use of equipment with an airlift agitation system for the process of cultivating even the highest viscosity mycelial media such as the medium in the process for aerobic fermentation of penicillin with mold fungus. The other direction of development of fermentation equipment for industrial medicine is the improvement in design of different functional units of fermentation tanks - sampling systems, hatches, discharge valves, and others - common to equipment with different agitation systems.