Toray Industries, Inc.

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

Takashi Mimitsuka

Hideki Sawai

Kenji Sawai

Katsushige Yamada

Shin-ichi Minegishi

Izumi Nakagawa

Nanami Sasaki

Ken Morita

Masateru Ito

Kenji Kawamura

Norihiro Takeuchi

Tatsuya Nagano

Daisuke Mochizuki

Hitoshi Takahashi

Kentaro Ishii

Tadashi Araki

Mitsufumi Wada

Atsushi Kobayashi

Toshihiro Oikawa

Takashi Morishige

Masahiro Henmi

Junko Tokuda

Yuji Tanaka

Satoko Kanamori

Koya Kato

Shinichi Minegishi

Hiroshi Hayakawa

Yohito Ito

Masashi Higasa

Tetsu Yonehara

Makoto Nishida

Yuki Yamamoto

Hitoki Miyake

Koji Kobayashi

Yosuke Higashi

Reiko Abe

Kohei Fujii

Kazumi Suda

Hayato Inuzuka

Miyuki Kawashima

Mitsufumi Wade

Jihoon Cheon

Kenichi Otsuka

Ito Masateru

Shin-Ichi Minegishi

Lactic acid is obtained by a method including (A) a step of continuous fermentation wherein a fermentation culture medium of a microorganism having an ability of lactic acid fermentation is filtered through a porous membrane having an average pore size of not less than 0.01 &#x3bc;m and less than 1 &#x3bc;m with a transmembrane pressure difference within the range of 0.1 to 20 kPa, and the permeate is collected, while retaining the non-permeated liquid in or returning the non-permeated liquid to the culture, and adding a fermentation feedstock to the culture; (B) a step of filtering the permeate obtained in Step (A) through a nanofiltration membrane; and (C) a step of distilling the permeate obtained in Step (B) under a pressure of not less than 1 Pa and not more than atmospheric pressure, at 25&#xb0; C. to 200&#xb0; C. to recover lactic acid.

Method for producing lactic acid and method for producing polylactic acid

A method of producing a chemical product includes cultivating microorganisms or culture cells in a fermentation tank; transferring a culture liquid from the fermentation tank to a membrane separation tank to filter the culture liquid through a separation membrane; and collecting a fermentation product from a filtration liquid as the chemical product while refluxing an unfiltered culture liquid that has not been filtered to be joined to the culture liquid on an upstream side of the membrane separation tank, wherein one portion of the culture liquid to be transferred from the fermentation tank is allowed to bypass the membrane separation tank depending on a pressure at a culture liquid flow-in side of the membrane separation tank.

Method of producing a chemical product

A continuous sterilizing apparatus circulates, through members constituting a flow channel, a sterilizing medium that sterilizes the members to sterilize the members, circulates a sterilizing liquid subjected to sterilization treatment through pipes, performs a series of pieces of treatment including heating treatment, holding treatment, and cooling treatment on the sterilizing liquid, controls a flow rate, a temperature, and a pressure to be preset conditions, and switches a liquid to be circulated through the flow channel from the sterilizing liquid to a liquid to be sterilized.

Method of operating continuous sterilizing apparatus, continuous sterilizing apparatus, fermenting system, and continuous fermenting system

A method of producing alcohol from cellulose-containing biomass includes steps (1) to (8): step (1): pretreating a cellulose-containing biomass; step (2): saccharifying the pretreated cellulose-containing biomass obtained in step (1) with a saccharification enzyme; step (3): removing a saccharification residual solid from a saccharification treated product obtained in step (2); step (4): culturing an alcohol fermentation microorganism with an aqueous sugar solution obtained in step (3) as a fermentation raw material; step (5): removing the alcohol fermentation microorganism from a culture liquid containing the alcohol fermentation microorganism obtained in step (4); step (6): distilling the alcohol fermentation liquid obtained in step (5) to recover alcohol; step (7): passing and filtering a distillation residual liquid obtained in step (6) through a reverse osmosis membrane; and step (8): performing treatment of discharging a retentate obtained in step (7).

Method of producing alcohol from cellulose-containing biomass

A cartridge type hollow fiber membrane module includes: a cartridge type hollow fiber membrane element including a hollow fiber membrane bundle, a distribution cylinder, and an adhesive resin portion; a module case including a module case main body portion which has at least one port corresponding to a supply outlet of filtrate or an undiluted solution on a side surface, and a header which has a port corresponding to a supply outlet of filtrate or an undiluted solution, and accommodating the cartridge type hollow fiber membrane element; a first sealing member disposed to come into contact with the distribution cylinder and the header on an external side of a boundary surface between the supporting portion and the adhesive resin portion; and a second sealing member disposed to come into contact with an outer circumference portion of the distribution cylinder and the module case main body portion.

Cartridge type hollow fiber membrane module

The invention provides a method of producing a chemical product through continuous fermentation which includes filtering a culture of a microorganism or cultured cells with a separation membrane to recover a product from a filtrate and simultaneously retaining a nonfiltered fluid in, or refluxing it to, the culture, and adding fermentation materials to the culture, wherein a porous membrane having an average pore size of 0.01 &#x3bc;m or more to less than 1 &#x3bc;m is used as the separation membrane and the filtration is conducted with a transmembrane pressure difference in the range of 0.1 to 20 kPa. According to this method, the fermentation productivity of the chemical product can be largely elevated at high stability and a low cost.

Method of producing chemical product with continuous fermentation and filtering

A method produces a chemical through continuous fermentation including: (a) culturing a cell in a culture medium in a fermentor to ferment a feedstock to produce a chemical; (b) conducting filtration of the culture medium with a separation membrane module; (c) separating a permeate containing the chemical from the culture medium while retaining a non-permeated liquid in the fermentor, and (d) supplying a gas from at least one of a lower portion of the separation membrane module and a pipe communicating between the fermentor and the separation membrane module to adjust a gas linear velocity in the separation membrane module to 0.15 cm/s to 70 cm/s while supplying the separation membrane module with a liquid.

Method for producing chemical by continuous fermentation

A method produces cadaverine more efficiently and at a higher yield than production methods by the conventional fermentation methods. The method includes culturing coryneform bacterium/bacteria having an ability to produce cadaverine and having a resistance to 2,2'-thiobis(ethylamine). Preferably, the coryneform bacterium/bacteria has/have lysine decarboxylase activity and, preferably, the coryneform bacterium/bacteria has/have homoserine auxotrophy and/or a resistance to S-(2-aminoethyl)-L-cysteine.

Method for producing cadaverine

A method of producing cadaverine is more efficient and at a higher yield than production methods by the conventional fermentation methods. The method includes culturing coryneform bacterium/bacteria having a resistance to a pH of 5.5 or less. Preferably, the coryneform bacterium/bacteria has/have lysine decarboxylase activity and, preferably, the coryneform bacterium/bacteria has/have homoserine auxotrophy and/or a resistance to S-(2-aminoethyl)-L-cysteine.

By a method for producing cadaverine by culturing a microorganism that extracellularly secretes lysine decarboxylase, by-production of lysine is suppressed, the yield of cadaverine relative to glucose consumption is improved compared to conventional production methods, and further, the load on the purification step in purification of cadaverine as a raw material for polyamide can be reduced.

Process for production of cadaverine

A method for producing D-lactic acid in high yield, and to provide a method for producing D-lactic acid with high selectivity, in which optical purity is high and a by-product organic acid is small. In one aspect, a microorganism, wherein activity of pyruvate formate-lyase (pfl) is inactivated or decreased, and further activity of-derived NADH-dependent D-lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA) is enhanced, is cultured to efficiently produce D-lactic acid. With regard to a method for enhancing ldhA activity, by linking, on a genome, a gene encoding ldhA with a promoter of a gene which controls expression of a protein involved in a glycolytic pathway, a nucleic acid biosynthesis pathway or an amino acid biosynthesis pathway, suitable results are obtained compared to the method for enhancing expression of the gene using an expression vector. A microorganism in which a dld gene is substantially inactivated or decreased is cultured to produce high quality D-lactic acid with reduced concentration of pyruvic acid.

Biocatalyst for production of D-lactic acid

A method of producing lactic acid continuous fermentation including filtering a culture of polyploid yeast having a capacity to produce lactic acid through a porous membrane having an average pore size of not less than 0.01 &#x3bc;m and less than 1 &#x3bc;m, and recovering the product from the filtrate while the unfiltered liquid is retained in or returned to the culture and a fermentation feedstock is added to the culture.

Method of producing lactic acid by continuous fermentation

A method for producing a diamine includes purifying a diamine from an aqueous solution containing a diamine salt by adding an alkaline substance to the aqueous solution and then filtering the resulting solution by allowing the solution to pass through a nanofiltration membrane to remove the salt, thereby obtaining an aqueous diamine solution.

Process for producing diamine and polyamide

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Kamakura, Japan

Takashi Mimitsuka