ABSTRACT
Traditional fermentation process development has used either batch or fed-batch operation and in-process monitoring to control, for instance, temperature, pH, agitation, aeration, pressure, and feed rates. This chapter discusses recent progress made in adapting high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis for on-line monitoring of industrial bioprocesses. The main advantage of using HPLC over nonchromatographic methods, such as those based on spectroscopic and electrochemical measurements, is its ability to analyze multiple components in a complex matrix, such as fermentation broths or waste streams. HPLC has become well established as an analytical tool in the last two decades because it actually encompasses a variety of operational modes. Current HPLC analyses are done either off-line in centralized control laboratories or at-line at a pilot plant control center. Centralized laboratories evolved as arenas where a core of analytical expertise and equipment could operate to the benefit of a diversity of pilot-plant and production operations.
