2 Fermentation Design Allan C Soderberg 1.0 INTRODUCTION Industrial scale fermentation technology tends to be a " proprietary science. The industries with submerged liquid fermentation processes as a synthetic"step for producing a commercial product generally have devel oped their own technology and have not shared developments with their competitors, academe, or the public. If major fermentation industries decided to openly discuss the criteria of their procedures and processes for their fermentation departments, they would not agree on most systems and equipment, from culture storage methods to valves, from lab culture propa gation to fermenter design, from scale-up to sterile filters, or from tank inoculation methods to continuous sterilizers. The experience ofevery author or speaker, though he may have years of practical knowledge, is probably regarded as inferior to the experience of the reader or listener. That is, the subjective analysis of the data by each company has resulted in different solutions to common problems, or each company has a customized plant suited to its procedures and products2 Fermentation Design Allan C, Soderberg 1.0 INTRODUCTION Industrial scale fermentation technology tends to be a “proprietary science. ” The industries with submerged liquid fermentation processes as a “synthetic” step for producing a commercial product generally have devel￾oped their own technology and have not shared developments with their competitors, academe, or the public. Ifmajor fermentation industries decided to openly discuss the criteria of their procedures and processes for their fermentation departments, they would not agree on most systems and equipment, from culture storage methods to valves, from lab culture propa￾gation to fermenter design, from scale-up to sterile filters, or from tank inoculation methods to continuous sterilizers. The experience ofevery author or speaker, though he may have years of practical knowledge, is probably regarded as inferior to the experience of the reader or listener. That is, the subjective analysis of the data by each company has resulted in different solutions to common problems, or each company has a customized plant suited to its procedures and products. 67