Pharmacy is a large industry that contains high-tech processes and in which new methods are constantly being developed to optimize the production processes of active medicinal substances. One of the methods that promise great progress is microaeration. Microaeration is the aeration of reactors with very small bubbles called microbubbles. Their specific feature is a large surface-to-volume ratio. The consequence of this property is the rapid transfer of substances through the gas-liquid phase boundary. Microaeration in the pharmaceutical industry is used in upstream processes and in downstream processes. In upstream processes, the microbubbles provide a source of gases, usually oxygen, for the microorganisms or cells that are in the fermentation broth and produce the active pharmaceutical ingredients. This transfer of substances can take place in two ways, through the gas-liquid phase boundary or by direct contact, when the microbubble and the microorganism come together and form a complex. The utility of microaeration in downstream processes is expressed in the fact that it can be used as a separation method. Due to the properties of microbubbles, they can be used for bubble adsorption separation. There are several types of separations under this method, all of which are characterized by the fact that they are improved when using microbubbles compared to using ordinary coarse bubbles. A great discovery was also the invention of the so-called Desai artificial lichen (DAL), later also named Desai microbubble scaffold (DMS). These are complexes of microbubbles and several types of microorganisms that live in symbiosis with each other. These complexes can be designed by determining the microorganisms present and can be used for specific purposes.
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