Temperature Control of a Solid Substrate Cultivation Deep - Bed Reactor Using an Internal Heat Exchanger

The solid substrate cultivation (SSC) process is often limited by rapid increases in temperature as a result of metabolic activity and poor heat transfer properties of the solid substrate. High temperatures can adversely affect microbial growth and product formation. Reduction of substrate temperatures is important for improved productivity, yet effective and efficient control of heat transfer in a deep-bed SSC reactor has proven difficult. An internal cooling water coil was incorporated into a deep-bed reactor system and evaluated for its ability to reduce substrate temperature. Three operating treatments were investigated: cooling water circulation whenever the center bed temperature was above 30°C, timed cooling water operation on 10 min on/off intervals from the start of cultivation, and timed operation on 10 min on/off intervals after the expected start of microbial exponential growth. Enzyme yield, peak temperature, and net rate of metabolic heat accumulation within the substrate bed were measured during the cultivation of Trichoderma longibrachiatum on wheat bran for xylanase production. The cooling water reduced the temperatures observed in the substrate bed by 5°C on average and was effective in decreasing the rate of heat accumulation in the bed. Within a 10 min time interval, the internal heat exchanger demonstrated a net decrease in heat accumulation at an average rate of approximately 0.5°C/min. Despite the decrease in temperatures observed with the control strategies, the xylanase yields were not statistically different from the cultivations with no temperature control

PC–Based Data Acquisition for a Solid Substrate Cultivation Deep Bed Reactor

This work describes an instrumentation and data acquisition system designed for a deep bed reactor used to cultivate Trichoderma longibrachiatum on wheat bran. The system allowed on–line measurements of substrate temperature, oxygen concentration within the reactor headspace, relative humidity and temperature of the inlet air, and inlet airflow rates while maintaining aseptic conditions and without disturbing the cultivation process. An error analysis for the instrumentation and data acquisition equipment was completed and provided insight into the reliability of the sensor readings. The collected data provided quantitative information about the reactor system dynamics which can be used to evaluate and apply environmental control schemes, gain knowledge on microbial growth characteristics, and develop and validate mathematical models describing heat and mass transfer interactions

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead