Microbial fermentation is used to produce such products as therapeutic proteins, antibiotics, hormones, enzymes, amino acids, blood substitutes and alcohol. These products may be expressed by the microbial cells themselves, expressed intracellularly in the cytoplasm or, in the case of bacterial cells, in the periplasmic material. Before any intracellularly-produced molecules can be used and further purified, the cells (i.e., E. coli) must be concentrated and set in an appropriate buffer (cell washing) before being lysed. Then after lysis, molecules of interest have to be separated from the parent cells and then clarified to remove cellular debris and other contaminants. Depending on the process used, additional clarification steps may be necessary…