SHORT COMMUNICATION: Ambient gas exchange-enabled stirred culture bottle: A stirred tank reactor alternative to shake flasks for high gas-liquid mass transfer

Abstract

Through a gas vent riser tube or a gas intake downer tube, spent gas exhaust and ambient substrate gas intake in a stirred bottle culture are an-order-of-magnitude enhanced without line gas sparging when compared to similarly sized shake flask cultures. In addition to realistic impeller mixing, the novel in situ ambient gas pumping design, tested in a 500 mL wide-mouth bottle, produced an E. coli growth at 90% working volume equal to or better than that of a reciprocating 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask at 20% working volume through increased gas ventilation and gas hold-up.