A review on extractive fermentation via ion exchange adsorption resins opportunities, challenges, and future prospects.

Recent years have witnessed rise in the production of microbial fermentation of metabolites and proteins for industrial applications. The innovative method aims to improve the conventional batch fermentation and the separation. Furthermore, the idea of downstream processing of the target product enhances the efficiency of the overall process and makes it cost-effective and eco-friendly. Even though being cost-effective and eco-friendly, the process faces challenges in commercial applications. When the concentration of the final product/by-product reaches a certain level, feedback inhibition is a common problem encountered in the fermentation process. Excessive accumulation of end products/by-products in culture also inhibits cell growth and secretion of target metabolites. The fermentation results in the production of antibiotics, fungal metabolites, and amino acids, which come with serious inhibition problems. Hence, to mitigate such problems and enhance fermentation performance, extractive fermentation via in situ ion exchange adsorptive technique can be incorporated. The present review highlights the advances and suggests the strategies to resolve the inhibition problems using extractive fermentation via internal, external, and dispersed resin systems. Furthermore, methods for synthesis of resins are discussed and adsorption mechanism of ion exchanges is also elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]