Technical note: Design, development and validation of an automated gas monitoring equipment for measurement of the dynamics of microbial fermentation

The present technical note describes design, development and validation of an automated equipment for measurement of kinetics of gas production during fermentation in glass bottles. The overall repeatability and precision of the developed system was evaluated and compared with the manual gas measurement technique in respect to characterization of the fermentation kinetics of ruminant livestock feeds. Two incubations were carried out, during which the GP of six different feeds was measured with the automated system or manual technique. During a 48-hour incubation period, pressure data were collected at 15-minute intervals using automated equipment, yielding 192 head-space pressure measurements for each bottle. In manual measurement, incubations were performed with the nominal 60-mL serum bottle, and headspace pressure was read using a digital pressure gauge and then released at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, and 48 hours of incubation. The automated equipment recorded greater GP (+11.5%, over the 48-h incubation) than the manual measurement, and the repeatability and coefficient of repeatability values indicated that the GP data obtained with manual equipment were less repeatable. The automated equipment measures the fermentative GP kinetics with greater precision and repeatability than manual technique. • An automated batch GP equipment was designed, developed and validated, and a comparison was made with GP data obtained manually using a digital pressure gauge. • The automated equipment provided more reliable and repeatable data compared with manual measurement. • The automated equipment is available with lower cost and more functionality.