Membrane inlet mass spectrometry — measurement of dissolved gases in fermentation liquids

The measurement of gas concentrations in fermenters is vital for monitoring and controlling a great variety of biotechnological processes. At present, most systems analyse the content of inflowing and outflowing gas streams. The information obtained in this way has proved to be very useful, but gas phase analyses suffer from a considerable disadvantage; the gas composition of the outflow does not precisely reflect the gas composition of the microbes' environment at the time the measurements are made. To overcome this problem, new systems have been developed which measure the concentration of gases (particularly O₂, CO₂ and H₂) dissolved in fermentation liquids.     

Preparation of extracts of culture liquids for gas-chromatographic determination of non-acidic fermentation products

A simplified extraction method of high efficiency has been worked out to permit the determination of small amounts of alcohols present in fermentation solutions. Methods of extracting are described for large and small amounts of culture media. The proposed method has been successfully applied to known amounts of alcohol in bacterial fermentation solutions. Clostridium acetobutylicum andZymomonas mobilis were used for this investigation. The method is described in details with theClostridium culture.     

Preparation of extracts of culture liquids for gas-chromatographic determination of acidic fermentation products

An extraction method coupled with gas-chromatographic analysis has been devised for the determination of small amounts of C₁-C₇ branched and straight-chain saturated fatty acids as well as 18 mono-, di- and tricarboxylic acids and related compounds, the latter being analyzed either as their methylesters or as their trimethylsilyl-derivatives. Methods for extracting non-volatile acids or both volatile and non-volatile acids are described for large and small volumes of culture media. The proposed methods have been successfully applied to the determination of non-acidic fermentation products, known amounts of alcohols, and to volatile and non-volatile acids in bacterial fermentation solutions, namely a batch culture ofLactobacillus casei subsp.rhamnosus ATCC 7469. A carbon balance sheet of this organism's metabolic behaviour throughout growth is proposed.     

Desmin and Vimentin Intermediate Filament Networks: Their Viscoelastic Properties Investigated by Mechanical Rheometry

We have investigated the viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) proteins desmin and vimentin. Mechanical measurements were supported by time-dependent electron microscopy studies of the assembly process under similar conditions. Network formation starts within 2 min, but it takes more than 30 min until equilibrium mechanical network strength is reached. Filament bundling is more pronounced for desmin than for vimentin. Desmin filaments (persistence length l_p ≈ 900 nm) are stiffer than vimentin filaments (l_p ≈ 400 nm), but both IFs are much more flexible than microfilaments. The concentration dependence of the plateau modulus G₀ ∼ c^α is much weaker than predicted theoretically for networks of semiflexible filaments. This is more pronounced for vimentin (α = 0.47) than for desmin (α = 0.70). Both networks exhibit strain stiffening at large shear deformations. At the transition from linear to nonlinear viscoelastic response, only desmin shows characteristics of nonaffine network deformation. Strain stiffening and the maximum modulus occur at strain amplitudes about an order of magnitude larger than those for microfilaments. This is probably attributable to axial slippage within the tetramer building blocks of the IFs. Network deformation beyond a critical strain γ_max results in irreversible damage. Strain stiffening sets in at lower concentrations, is more pronounced, and is less sensitive to ionic strength for desmin than for vimentin. Hence, desmin exhibits strain stiffening even at low-salt concentrations, which is not observed for vimentin, and we conclude that the strength of electrostatic repulsion compared to the strength of attractive interactions forming the network junctions is significantly weaker for desmin than for vimentin filaments. These findings indicate that both IFs exhibit distinct mechanical properties that are adapted to their respective cellular surroundings [i.e., myocytes (desmin) and fibroblasts (vimentin)].     

Sauerkraut fermentation : New fermentation vat

Summary A new sauerkraut fermentation vat with external recycling of brine is described. This system allows the control of fermentation, improves the homogeneity of final product and accelerates theacidification by the usual lactic-acid bacteria.     

Oxygen transfer in liquids

In the laboratory-type airlift tower reactor oxygen transfer from air in tap water and/or polyacrylamide solutions (Neuperm WF) was studied. In order to characterize the system, volumetric coefficient of oxygen transfer was determined by the gassing-out method. Two arrangements of the airlift tower reactor were compared, namely the reactor with and without motionless mixer. In addition, mean relative gas holdup and gas power output were determined for both arrangements.     

Kocho fermentation

Kocho, an acidic starchy food, is prepared by fermenting a mixture of the scraping of the trunk and pulverized stem and corm of ensette ( Ensette ventricosum). Leuconostoc mesenteroides is responsible for initiating the fermentation. Because of the activities of this species and, to some extent, of Streptococcus faecalis , the pH of the fermenting kocho was reduced from 6˙5 to 5˙6. These organisms were then succeeded by the homofermentative bacteria Lactobacillus coryneformis subsp. coryne-formis and Lact. plantarum . Through the activities of the Lactobacillus species, the pH was further reduced to 4˙2. Pediococcus cerevisiae , although present in kocho, did not achieve prominence because of the relatively low fermentation temperature (14°-18°C). Spore-formers were present in fairly high numbers during the first 15 d of fermentation. It was suspected that the butyrous odour which was detected during the first 2 weeks in fermenting kocho might be due to the activities of certain clostridial species. Yeasts were also present in fairly high numbers.     

Solid-state fermentation

Solid-state fermentation has emerged as a potential technology for the production of microbial products such as feed, fuel, food, industrial chemicals and pharmaceutical products. Its application in bioprocesses such as bioleaching, biobeneficiation, bioremediation, biopulping, etc. has offered several advantages. Utilisation of agro-industrial residues as substrates in SSF processes provides an alternative avenue and value-addition to these otherwise under- or non-utilised residues. Today with better understanding of biochemical engineering aspects, particularly on mathematical modelling and design of bioreactors (fermenters), it is possible to scale up SSF processes and some designs have been developed for commercialisation. It is hoped that with continuity in current trends, SSF technology would be well developed at par with submerged fermentation technology in times to come.     

Miso fermentation

Miso is a fermented food widely consumed in the Orient and is prepared from mold rice, soybeans and salt. About 13 million bushels of soybeans are made into miso each year, the annualproduction amounting to 974,000 metric tons.     

发酵抑制物对絮凝酵母戊糖发酵的影响

将絮凝剂加入酵母溶液中,使酵母絮凝成颗粒以此作为固定化酵母进行戊糖发酵。研究了常见发酵抑制物(甲酸、乙酸、糠醛和乳酸等)对絮凝酵母发酵木糖的影响。结果表明:在60.0g/L木糖发酵液中,经过24h发酵,木糖利用率达94.6%,当分别添加抑制物甲酸、乙酸、糠醛、乙醇和乳酸时,聚氧乙烯絮凝酵母分别对其的耐受浓度为0.5、0.5、1.0、30.0和8.0g/L。当抑制物添加量超过各自的耐受浓度后,对絮凝酵母发酵会产生明显的抑制作用。     

Sugaring-out extraction of acetoin from fermentation broth by coupling with fermentation

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering - Acetoin is a natural flavor and an important bio-based chemical which could be separated from fermentation broth by solvent extraction, salting-out...