ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Bioprocess Engineering
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1617115
Development and Optimization of the Ammonia Removal Strategy for Sustainable Recycling of Cell Culture Spent Media in Cultivated Meat Production; from Concept to Implementation
Provisionally accepted
- Texas A and M University, College Station, United States
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Ammonia is a toxic metabolic waste produced during mammalian cell metabolism, with inhibitory effects against cell growth. This study focuses on developing and optimizing an ammonia removal approach to support spent media recycling throughout sustainable cultivated meat biomanufacturing. Among the various methods evaluated, the alkalization-stripping method was found to be significantly more efficient and rapid than other strategies to remove ammonia ions while preserving the remaining glucose contents. The optimized process parameters were determined to be a pH of 12 following a 15-minute stripping process, achieving more than 82% ammonia removal efficiency. When applied to lamb satellite cells (LSCs), the treated spent media improved the cell growth rate without inducing any morphological changes. A 50:50 ratio formulation of treated spent media to fresh media demonstrated an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for spent media recycling, providing a practical approach to implementing sustainable media recycling in cultivated meat production.
Keywords: ammonia removal, Cell culture spent media, Media recycling, Cultivated meat production, RSM-CCD modelling and optimization
Received: 23 Apr 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pakbin, Amanipour, Amirvaresi, Shahsavari and Ovissipour. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Reza Ovissipour, Texas A and M University, College Station, United States
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