Micro-tube mass production device for microbial culture

Abstract

This paper describes mass production system of micro-tubes for microbial culture in an open environment. Microbes are used in many fields, such as food, medicine, environmental and energy. We proposed a microbe culture system using hydrogel micro-tubes, which can protect the target microbes inside from competitive microbes outside of the tubes while allow oxygen and nutrition to diffuse through. The hydrogel micro-tubes can be produced by a microfluidic device, which can precisely control the flow and therefore, the tube geometry. For practical applications of the micro-tube-based microbial culture, one of the biggest challenges is the scale-up of the micro-tube-based culture system, or mass production of the tubes. We developed a fluidic system that can produce multiple micro-tubes in parallel. We characterized the mass-produced micro channels and verified the effectiveness of the system.

Optimization and Molecular Characterization of Lipase Producing Bacillus subtilis Strain Rcps3 and Bacillus fumarioli Strain Rcps4 from Oil-contaminated Soils of Warangal

“…Assessment of the enzyme production activity in the laboratory, followed by pilot-scale evaluation and industrial-scale quantification is necessary. The amalgamation of different advanced culture techniques [24][25][26] , production [27][28][29], and molecular techniques 30-32 , and advanced bioinformatics analysis [33][34][35][36] can provide the intended results with maximum accuracy and help in the identification of exact strains with all necessary information.…”

Microfluidic mass production system for hydrogel microtubes for microbial culture

“…1. 15,16) The microtubes made of calcium alginate, which is a commonly used hydrogel for encapsulation, have a network structure and nanopores approximately 200 nm in diameter. [17][18][19][20][21] The nanopores are small enough to block the competing microorganisms outside but sufficiently large for oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrition, and byproducts to diffuse through.…”

“…We proposed a multichannel fluidic system to produce 12 microtubes in parallel. 16) Double coaxial flows of sodium alginate and isotonic sodium chloride solution formed calcium alginate microtubes in a calcium chloride solution in a beaker.…”