Online Monitoring of Oxygen Transfer Rate as a Versatile Tool for Fermentation Characterization and Optimization.

Microbial oxygen consumption is a reliable indicator of microbial metabolism in aerobic cultivations. By measuring the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) online, common characteristics of microbial cultivations such as biomass growth, nutrient limitation, oxygen limitation, and stress factors can easily be identified. This chapter presents a guideline to confidently interpret OTR data and to reliably identify typical phenomena.