PHAs are biodegradable, organic, non-toxic polyesters that are produced by certain bacteria and plants. PHA granules accumulated in the microbial cell are called carbonosomes. They serve as storage reservoirs and hence the fermentation needs feast and famine regimes in a sequential system or in a single system. Simple fed-batch systems due to their dilution effect on the media make it complicated to achieve targeted PHA yields, resulting in the subsequent downstream processing being less economically viable.
An alternative is to use repeated fed-batch and fed-batch with cell recycling to allow accumulation of biomass and PHAs in the biomass. There is growing interest in using mixed cultures on mixed waste streams to reduce the costs associated with aseptic mono-culture fermentation.
Though this approach can be optimised by following the same feast and famine regime for high PHA yields, there is an issue with copolymer blends that will be produced with varying microstructure, physical, and chemical properties causing unpredictable product quality. This can be solved by adding a pre-biomass conversion step to the PHA fermentation process and enriching the PHA accumulating bacteria by dynamic feast and famine cultivation. Chemostats are reported to be more suitable for mixed microbial cultivation as enriched bacteria can be retained unlike batch and fed-batch fermentation where fresh bacterial inoculum is added at every start-phase which is many times more frequent than chemo-stat systems. Unconventional substrates like gaseous substrates are being tried with unconventional PHA producers e.g. Cyanobacteria to explore the potential of converting syngas and biogas to PHAs with or without additional carbon source in the growth media.
How Celignis Can Help
At Celignis we have expertise and experience in screening lactic acid bacteria for the selection of substrate- and product-tolerant strains.. We can also develop:
fed-batch strategies to achieve high cell mass, and in situ product recovery techniques to separate lactic acid from the fermentation broth. Our experts
will work with you and develop bespoke lactic acid fermentation methods for your feedstock or industrial waste streams.
Lactic acid bacteria are very sensitive and require complex nutrient media compared to other bacillus species that can produce lactic acid. Hence, industries are constantly looking for fungi and bacillus strains that have low nutrient requirements and can tolerate acidic pH.
At Celignis we have expertise and experience in screening lactic acid bacteria for the selection of substrate- and product-tolerant strains. We can also develop: fed-batch strategies to achieve high cell mass, and in situ product recovery techniques to separate lactic acid from the fermentation broth. We will work with you and develop bespoke lactic acid fermentation methods for your feedstock or industrial waste streams.
Propionic acid can be produced from a variety of substrates such as glucose, ethanol, lactose, glycerol, and pectin. So, several industrial streams will be suitable to produce propionic acid, if the bacteria are adapted to the inhibitors present in the waste streams and fermentation is optimised to achieve high cell densities and high product concentration.
We can perform anaerobic fermentations and develop fermentation strategies to achieve high cell mass and in-situ product recovery techniques. We can screen your feedstock for propionic acid production, adapt the strain to any inhibitors present in the feed, and develop bespoke fermentation and product recovery processes.
Butyric acid is biologically produced by Clostridium species and like other acids (acetic acid, lactic acid, propionic acid), it is toxic to the bacteria after a certain concentration. Hence, the product titres are generally low which makes downstream expensive. In order to reduce these costs, in situ removal of butyric acid can be developed. In situ removal strategies are not yet industrially applied for butyric acid, but it is a key area where progress has to be made to make the process economically sustainable.
At Celignis, we have strong expertise in Clostridial fermentation. We can isolate and or adapt the strains that are suitable for your feedstock and can develop fermentation strategies to reduce substrate and product inhibition. We will innovate with you for you.
Butanol fermentation is also one of the difficult fermentation pathways due to substrate and product inhibition. However, this can be avoided by fed-batch fermentation and in-situ stripping of butanol. Also, reducing the feedstock and enzyme costs will make the process more economically viable. Through using industrial waste streams (negative costs), enzymatic cocktails tailored for the feedstock (allowing low-enzyme dosages), and with high sugar yields, the right choice of microbial strain, and an effective in-situ removal technology, it is possible to develop an economically-viable butanol process.
At Celignis, we have considerable expertise in Clostridial fermentation and especially butanol fermentation. Our Chief Innovation Officer Dr Lalitha Gottumukkala has extensively worked in this area and has isolated novel strains and developed novel methods for non-acetogenic butanol fermentation as part of her PhD.
Natural microbes that produce 1,3-Propanediol are Klebsiella, Clostridia, Citrobacter, Enterobacter and Lactobacilli. They all use glycerol as a carbon source and produce 1,3-PDO through 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde route using glycerol dehydratase enzymes and 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase enzymes.
At Celignis, we have expertise and experience in performing anaerobic fermentations and developing fermentation strategies to achieve high cell mass and in situ product recovery techniques. We can screen your feedstock for 1,3-Propanediol production, adapt the strain to any inhibitors present in the feed, and develop bespoke fermentation and product recovery process.
Yeast fermentation is one of the oldest fermentations and is used in everyday life to produce a variety of commodity products including bread, beer, wine,
cheese, and soy sauce. A few decades ago, yeast gained popularity as an industrial strain for biorefinery and biofuel applications.
Algal cultivation is complicated and requires optimisation to achieve high biomass yields. Algal biomass production depends on nutrient uptake and
other environmental conditions such as temperature, pH, salt concentration etc. It is important to select the strain based on the type of
production (open ponds, photobioreactors), feedstock and application. We have particular expertise in the evaluation and optimisation of algae thorugh
our Chief Innovation Officer, Lalitha, who is currently undertaking a Marie-Curie funded project at Celignis on this topic.
We are available to answer any questions you may have on how to get high value chemicals and biofuels from biomass through fermentation processes.
Just get in touch with us by sending us an email info@celignis.com, giving us a call at (+353) 61 371 725, or through
our contact form.
Our Custom Chatbot is Integrated into the Celignis Database
We are proud to announce the launch of Celignis InSightAI, a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by Celignis and integrated with the Celignis Database. It functions as a highly-customised chatbot, focused on providing insights and conclusions from the data displayed on the page. Once launched, and authorised by the user, it has access to the results presented on the Database page and the user can ask it questions about those results.
A 30-second video outlining some of its functionality is provided below.
We are pleased to today announce the release of Celignis USA's brochure for 2026. The 36-page pdf document covers our range of analytical and bioprocess development services, some price-lists, and details on our history.
Iowa-based Facility will Offer Our Services to US-Based Clients
We're delighted to announce that today marks the official launch date of Celignis USA. This latest development in the extension of the Celignis family will offer all of Celignis's services to US-based clients. The 10,000 sq. ft facility is located in Waterloo, Iowa and leverages Celignis's 11 years of expertise in the bioeconomy.
Click here to read more about Celignis USA and our history leading to this point.
Articles cover bioprocess development as well as analytical services across many different sectors
We currently offer over 150 analysis packages, covering close to 400 different analytes. We have been proud to provide data to a diverse array of clients over the years, including many from research institutions. A recent literature search found a large number of peer-reviewed articles citing data provided by Celignis. These papers cover our
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