Measuring the Flow Characteristics of Fermentation Broths with an Impeller Viscometer

The reological properties of 9 kinds of mycelial cultures were measured with an impeller viscometer to overcome the difficulties in taking data of torque with conventional viscometers. All the cultures were pseudoplastic and the flow behavior indexes for most of the fermentation broths were below 0.3. The maximum consistency coefficient was as high as 22.4 Ns~n/m~2 for the broth of gentamycin fermentation, but it reduced drastically when the broth was diluted with a small amount of water. Temperature had little influence on the flow properties of mycelial cultures, while the standing time of the samples after being sampled had an obvious effect.