Question

“Filter aid can also be added to the fermentation broth to increase the porosity of the cake as it forms”, what does this statement means?

(a) To increase the pH of the fermentation broth

(b) To decrease the filtration rate

(c) To decrease the pI of the fermentation broth

(d) To increase the filtration rate

This question was posed to me in an interview.

Question is from Filtration topic in portion Unit Operations of Bioprocess Engineering

Answer 1

The statement “Filter aid can also be added to the fermentation broth to increase the porosity of the cake as it forms” means:

(d) To increase the filtration rate

Adding a filter aid to the fermentation broth increases the porosity of the filter cake, reducing resistance to liquid flow and thus increasing the filtration rate. This is important for efficient separation in downstream processing.