Explain the steps involved in downstream processing in biotechnology.

Explanation

Steps involved in downstream processing in biotechnology are :
(1) Separation of biomass : The biomass is separated from the culture medium. If the product is biomass it is recovered for processing and spent medium is discarded. Call mass is separated from the termented broth by centrifugation.
(2) Cell disruption : If the desired product is intracellular the cell biomass can be disrupted so that the product should be released. The solid-liquid is separated by centrifugation or filtration and cell debris are discarded.
(3) Concentration of Broth: The spent medium is concentrated it the product is extracellular.
(4) Initial purification of metabolities: There are several methods for recovery of product from the clarified fermented broth e.g., precipitation, solvent extraction, ultra-filtration, ion-exchange chromatography, adsorption and solvent extraction.
(5) Metabolite-specific purification : Specific purification methods are used when the desired metabolite is purified to a very high degree.