BRIDGE-PAT: bridging the gap between fermentation innovation and industrial scale-up

How can promising fermentation processes be scaled up more reliably and efficiently? Through BRIDGE-PAT, NIZO Food Research, the associated Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF) and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR), together with BRIG BIO, Beautifully Balanced Bites, Yeastime, Endress, Metrohm and Formical, aim to develop practical tools to help bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and industrial production.

Scaling up fermentation is more than a matter of increasing production volumes. Understanding how a process behaves at different scales is essential to maintaining productivity, product quality and process robustness. BRIDGE-PAT — short for “Bridging Reliable Industrial Development using Guided Engineering & Process Analytical Technologies” — aims to address this challenge by developing and validating a generic Process Analytical Technology (PAT) framework: an approach that combines advanced sensors, real-time process analytics and digital modelling to better understand and monitor fermentation processes.

Three complementary industrial applications

The proposed project centres on three industrial use cases, each addressing a different aspect of fermentation innovation:

• BRIG BIO will focus on scaling up precision fermentation to produce high-value bovine whey proteins that meet customer specifications.
• Beautifully Balanced Bites (BBB) will validate the PAT approach for yeast biomass fermentation and sustainable protein production.
• Yeastime will investigate the potential of its proprietary bioacoustic technology to enhance microbial growth, productivity and process robustness through low-intensity pulsed ultrasound and controlled acoustic stimulation.

Technology partners Endress, Metrohm and Formical will support the work with advanced technology and analytics.

Connecting expertise, data and scale-up infrastructure

Rather than developing solutions for a single fermentation process, BRIDGE-PAT aims to establish a generic PAT framework, with three complementary industrial cases equally central to its development and validation. By combining advanced sensors, real-time process analytics and harmonised datasets across laboratory, pilot and demonstration scales, the consortium aims to develop digital process models and scale-up methodologies that can support a wider range of fermentation applications.

Beyond the individual applications, BRIDGE-PAT aims to strengthen the Dutch fermentation ecosystem by supporting sustainable protein production, the digitalisation of bioprocessing and the commercial deployment of next-generation food ingredients and biobased products in the Netherlands and across Europe.