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On-line Oxygen measurement in shaking flasks Always sufficient oxygen supply in shaking flasks

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Oxygen supply is one of the major issues in the cultivation of aerobic organisms. For shake-flask cultures a sufficient O2 supply is commonly assumed, despite adequate methods for real monitoring of dissolved O2 were missing.

PreSens offers a unique system for the on-line measurement of oxygen in shaking flasks. It can be adapted to all shakers and types of shaking flasks. The provided software displays the measured oxygen in all connected shaking flasks with an accuracy of ± 1 % air saturation during the whole cultivation. Therefore, oxygen limitation can easily be detected. This avoids wrong decissions in process design and biocatalyst design.

The system consists of the following components: A sensor patch of 5 mm diameter is glued inside the shaking flask. This patch is changing its optical properties with changing oxygen concentration and is read out by a small electro-optical unit. The sensor stays in the shaking flask for typically 1 year as it is autoclavable up to 50 times. The thin patch does influence neither the flow pattern nor the oxygen transfer rate. In addition, PreSens offers ready to use plastic flasks with integrated sensor patches.

The read-out unit is placed underneath the shaking flask and is connected to a controller. PreSens offers systems for 1 (Fibox 3), 4 (OXY-4 mini) and 10 (OXY-10 mini) shaking flasks. The provided software is displaying the measured values, saves all data and can export them to a spreadsheet program like MS Excel®.

The on-line oxygen measurement of PreSens leads to more credible decisions in process design and biocatalyst design. It makes the bioprocess optimization more reliable.

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