Patents Assigned to Water Research Committe
  • Patent number: 5945002
    Abstract: A method of producing a secondary metabolites comprises providing a porous substratum which has a biofilm of micro-organism attached thereto, and causing a nutrient solution to flow through the substratum, at a rate which is sufficiently low for a nutrient gradient to be established across the biofilm, such that the nutrient concentration at a high level along the gradient is sufficiently high to support primary growth of the micro-organism, and the nutrient concentration at low level along the gradient being sufficiently low to induce secondary growth of the micro-organism, thereby to produce secondary metabolite. The substrate is in the form of a hollow fibre membrane having a relatively thin, porous skin on the inside, and a relatively thick, finger-like, externally unskinned void structure radiating outwardly from the skin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 31, 1999
    Assignee: Water Research Committe
    Inventors: Winston Daniel Leukes, Edmund Petrus Jacobs, Peter Dale Rose, Stephanie Gail Burton, Ronald Douglas Sanderson