Rheological Behavior of High Cell Density Pseudomonas putida LS46 Cultures during Production of Medium Chain Length Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Polymers

The rheology of high-cell density (HCD) cultures is an important parameter for its impact on mixing and sparging, process scale-up, and downstream unit operations in bioprocess development. In this work, time-dependent rheological properties of HCD Pseudomonas putida LS46 cultures were monitored for microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production. As the cell density of the fed-batch cultivation increased (0 to 25 g·L(−1) cell dry mass, CDM), the apparent viscosity increased nearly nine-fold throughout the fed-batch process. The medium behaved as a nearly Newtonian fluid at lower cell densities, and became increasingly shear-thinning as the cell density increased. However, shear-thickening behavior was observed at shearing rates of approximately 75 rad·s(−1) or higher, and its onset increased with viscosity of the sample. The supernatant, which contained up to 9 g·L(−1) soluble organic material, contributed more to the observed viscosity effect than did the presence of cells. Owing to this behavior, the oxygen transfer performance of the bioreactor, for otherwise constant operating conditions, was reduced by 50% over the cultivation time. This study has shown that the dynamic rheology of HCD cultures is an important engineering parameter that may impact the final outcome in PHA cultivations. Understanding and anticipating this behavior and its biochemical origins could be important for improving overall productivity, yield, process scalability, and the efficacy of downstream processing unit operations.