Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Treatment of live animal
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-27
2002-10-15
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Treatment of live animal
C426S061000, C426S656000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06465025
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to aqueous L-lysine-containing animal feed supplements, which optionally inactivated microorganisms from the fermentation process, and a process for the production of such supplements.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The essential amino acid L-lysine is widely used as an animal feed supplement. It is known that L-lysine is produced by fermentation of strains of coryneform bacteria, in particular
Corynebacterium glutamicum.
Due to its great significance, efforts are constantly being made to improve the production process. Improvements to the process may relate to the intrinsic performance characteristics of the microorganisms (e.g., by mutagenesis and selection), to measures concerning fermentation technology (e.g., stirring and oxygen supply), to the composition of the nutrient media (e.g., sugar concentration during fermentation), or to ways in which product is purified or prepared (e.g., ion exchange chromatography or crystallisation.
According to the prior art, there are three different groups of L-lysine-containing product presentations which are produced from fermentation broths. The best known group comprises pulverulent or crystalline product presentations obtained from cleaned-up or pure L-lysine, which is typically present in the form of a salt such as, for example, L-lysine monohydrochloride. Another group of solid product presentations, (see e.g., EP-B-0533039), contain, in addition to L-lysine, the feedstock used during fermentative production and, optionally, the inactivated biomass of the microorganism used. These types of solid products often exhibit clear disadvantages with regard to handling properties and application. For example, the quality of the product may be influenced to a considerable extent by the weather (high air humidity levels may cause caking which impairs the shelf life and dispensing properties of the product). In addition, the processing of dry, pulverulent L-lysine-containing products may lead to undesirable dust development.
The third group of L-lysine-containing products comprises concentrated, aqueous, alkaline solutions. These avoid the above-mentioned problems (EP-B-0534865).
Many different processes are known for producing L-lysine-containing products from L-lysine-containing fermentation broths. There are essentially two different processes currently known for producing solid, pure L-lysine. Lysine may be obtained as a monohydrochloride (Lys-HCl) by crystallisation from the corresponding fermentation broths, after the inactivated biomass has been separated off by suitable methods. Cleaning-up of the filtrate prior to further concentration is performed, in general, by ion exchange chromatography over several stages. Typically, fermentation broth separated from the biomass is acidified, preferably by the addition of hydrochloric acid (HCl) or sulfuric acid (H
2
SO
4
), to ease adsorption of the lysine on to ion-exchange resins. One problem with this is that, in addition to L-lysine, various other cations are present in the fermentation broth which are also bound. The adsorbed lysine is then preferably eluted by an ammoniacal solution and the ion-exchange column is regenerated. The lysine solution obtained in this way is then concentrated and lysine-HCl is obtained in crystalline form after neutralisation with hydrochloric acid. In general, a variety of ion-exchange columns connected in sequence are necessary for obtaining a pure product.
Another method enables lysine to be obtained in the form of a crystalline salt after purifying with activated carbon (SU-183581). The lysine-containing fermentation broth is inactivated by standard processes using moist heat and separated from the biomass by filtration. After acidification of the filtrate to pH 5, 4-5% activated carbon is added with constant stirring at 50-55° C., in order to separate off undesirable impurities from the filtrate and to prevent discoloration of the crystallizate. In a further filtration step, the activated carbon is separated off and the dissolved sulfate is then precipitated as calcium sulfate by the addition of calcium hydroxide. This is filtered off, the ammonia is removed in a rotary evaporator under vacuum and the solution is concentrated until crystallisation occurs on cooling.
The disadvantage of these two preparation methods lies in the numerous individual stages and the complex cleaning processes using ion-exchange chromatography. The elimination of troublesome salts or the use of different elution media creates additional waste streams, which must either be cleaned up by complex methods or disposed of.
EP-B-0533039 avoids these disadvantages in that all the fermentation feedstock, optionally including the biomass, is concentrated and spray-dried at elevated temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,350 describes a process for producing biomass-free L-lysine-containing granules. In this process, the biomass is first isolated from the fermentation broth by ultrafiltration and discarded. The filtrate recovered in this way is then concentrated by extensive evaporation of the water content. The concentrate obtained in this way is finally dried and worked up in a complex manner by fluidised bed spray granulation to produce granules.
A process is also known from EP-B-0534865 for producing aqueous, basic, L-lysine-containing solutions from fermentation broths in which biomass is separated from the fermentation broth and discarded. A pH value of between 9 and 11 is established using a base such as sodium, potassium or ammonium hydroxide. The mineral constituents (inorganic salts) are separated from the broth by crystallisation after concentration and cooling and either used as fertiliser or discarded (land-filled).
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide novel, aqueous preparations of L-lysine and its salts suitable as a feed supplement. In addition, it is an object of the invention to provide a production process that is more economical and efficient than processes currently known.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The essential amino acid lysine is widely used as an animal feed supplement. Microorganisms of the genus Corynebacterium are distinguished by their capacity to secrete high concentrations of L-lysine into the corresponding fermentation medium over a relatively short period. The production processes are generally performed as fed batch processes. L-lysine produced by fermentation is currently predominantly worked up to produce a crystalline product, powder or granules.
The present invention provides an animal feed supplement derived from the fermentation broth of Coryneform bacteria, characterised in that it contains
a) L-lysine and/or a salt thereof, preferably at a concentration of 18-35 weight percent (calculated on the basis of lysine base),
b) the biomass formed during fermentation in an amount of from 0 to 100%, preferably from 50 to 100% and more preferably from 90 to 100%, and
c) preferably, greater than 50% of the other dissolved and suspended constituents of said fermentation broth.
The animal feed supplement is in the form of an aqueous composition at a pH of greater than 4 and less than 5.
The animal feed supplement has a lysine content (as lysine base) of 10 wt. % to 35 wt. %, preferably 15 wt. % to 35 wt. %, particularly preferably 18 wt. % to 35 wt. % and very particularly preferably 21 wt. % to 34 wt. %, relative to the total amount of supplement. The pH is less than 7, preferably 2 to 6.5, particularly preferably 2.5 to 6 and very particularly greater than 4 and less than 5.
The total solids content of the supplement amounts to from 10 wt. % to 55 wt. %, preferably 20 wt. to 55 wt., particularly preferably 35 wt. % to 55 wt. % and very particularly preferably 45 wt. % to 54 wt. %. The solids content contains, in addition to lysine preferably the biomass of the producing microorganism, the inorganic and other organic constituents of the fermentation broth and the by-products produced during fermentation, insofar as they have not been separated off by suitable processes such as, for exampl
Binder Michael
Uffmann Klaus-Erich
Degussa-Huls Aktiengesellschaft
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
Sayala Chhaya D.
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