Characterisation of the Oscillatory Flow Reactor for the Fermentation of Escherichia coli

Oscillatory Flow Reactor (OFR) is a novel type of tubular reactor consists of an equally spaced orifice baffles fitted inside the column of the reactor. The mixing in the OFR can be controlled by a combination of geometrical (i.e. baffles and orifice diameter) and operational parameters (i.e. oscillation frequency). The aim of this work was to develop and characterizes the novel OFR as a bioreactor. Upon completion of the OFR development, the reactor was subjected to a certain experiment for bioreactor characterization. The parameters studied were temperature profile, volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa), water loss due to evaporation and sterilization hold. The results showed the OFR was able to maintain the set temperature and its sterility throughout the experiment duration of 24 hours. The water loss due to evaporation inside the OFR was negligible as it was less than 4%. The highest kLa obtained was 33.6 h-1 at an oscillation frequency of 5 Hz. The OFR has shown its suitability as a bioreactor through various experiments conducted and will be tested for the fermentation of E. coli in the future

Factorial Experimental Design for Biobutanol Production from Oil Palm Frond (OPF) Juice by Clostridium Acetobutylicum ATCC 824

Biobutanol is an alternative energy that can be promising as the future energy source. It can be produced from natural and renewable agriculture wastes such as oil palm frond (OPF) juice by microbes. Clostridium acetobutylicum has the ability to ferment the sugars in OPF juice as carbon source into biobutanol. This research aimed to investigate the effect of independent and interaction factors; initial pH medium (5-7), inoculum size (1-20%), initial total sugars concentration (40-60 g/L), temperature (32-42°C) and yeast extract concentration (1-10 g/L) on the production of biobutanol from oil palm frond (OPF) juice by C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824 using a two level half factorial design which have been developed by the Design Expert Software Version 7.1. Based on the factorial analysis, it was observed that the most significant parameter was yeast extract concentration, which contributes 8.20%, followed by inoculum size and temperature, which were contribute 7.84% and 7.56%, respectively. The analysis showed the R2 value for the model was 0.9805 and the interaction between inoculum size and temperature gave the highest influenced to the fermentation process with contribution up to 16.31%. From the validation experiments, the experimental values were reasonable close to the predicted values with only 5.87% and 10.09% of errors. It confirmed the validity and adequacy of the predicted models. Hence, the data analysis developed from the Design Expert Software could reliably predict biobutanol yields. This study indicated that each of the factors may affect the fermentation process of the biobutanol production

Xylanase enzyme production with ultrasonic assisted fermentation

Ultrasonic assisted fermentation has been shown to improve the product yield; however, less attention has been given to the xylanase production via ultrasonic assisted fermentation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the conditions in which ultrasonic has been employed to enhance fermentation reactions of interest to xylanase production. Previously, the xylanase production from locally isolated strain identified as Bacillus Badius was successfully carried out at an optimum condition. In this study, xylanase production was further explored by incorporated ultrasonic assisted fermentation. The study was conducted by varying the ultrasonic process parameters including treatment time and duty cycle. Within the studied range, the highest xylanase production was 9.21 U/mL at duty cycle of 10%, amplitude of 2% and treatment time of 25 min. However, the production was 21% lower than that the conventional fermentation. This is due to unoptimized condition of the ultrasonic assisted fermentation as compared to the conventional one. Ultrasonication at the best process parameters is an effective and feasible way to enhance xylanase activity. In the future, we are looking forward to optimize the ultrasonic assisted fermentation to maximized xylanase production

Managing productivity in Universiti Malaysia Pahang: Rethinking the whom, which, what, and whose of productivity

Drawing on reviews of scholarly literature, this study suggests rethinking productivity in Universiti Malaysis Pahang (UMP) along four dimensions: the productivity of whom, productivity for which unit of analysis, productivity according to what functions, and productivity in whose interests. It offers principles for promoting enlightened discussion and pursuit of productivity of academic staff at UMP. In contrast to the dominant discussion, which emphasises focus, centralised standard measures, and accountability, the bias unfairness in this study is toward balance, decentralised diversity, and recalibration. Academic Differentiated Career Pathways (ADCAP) suggest the ideal is not for academic staff and faculties to produce to centrally managed objectives but for all individuals and units faculties to manage individually and collectively to design their work to improve their productivity along multiple dimensions

Screening of culture conditions for production of xylanase from landfill soil bacteria

Xylan is a major constituent of hemicellulosic polysaccharides found in plant’s cell wall which represent up to 20-30% of the total dry weight in tropical plant biomass [1]. Besides, 9-12% of municipal solid waste are composed of hemicellulose on dry weight basis [2]. Enzymatic method can be used for the degradation of these materials involving the use of microbial enzymes [3] that are less polluting, environmental friendly, energy saving and lower disposal problems [4]. Xylanase is a biocatalyst which specifically degrade xylan into smaller sugars such as xylose and xylobiose [5]. It has been used in many important industrial applications such as pulp, paper, bakery, juice and beer industries [6]. This enzyme has been employed in paper manufacturing to bleach paper pulp and increase the brightness of paper pulp instead of using toxic and expensive chemicals [5]. Xylanase also being used in biofuel production such as ethanol from lignocellulose biomass and used in treatment of barley and wheat to improve the properties of animal diet in animal feed industries [1]. Besides, this enzyme can be applied for conversion of xylan into xylose in agricultural wastewater and to clarify fruit juices in beverage industries [7]. Microbes are prefer by the industries to produce various enzymes, because of high growth rate and large volume of enzymes can be obtained within a short time [8]. Employing microbes such as bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi, that are known for their ability to secrete extracellular enzymes into the environment, may help to overcome the current challenge in reducing the volume of waste in landfill by biological conversion of municipal solid waste into bioenergy [9]

Biobutanol production from oil palm frond juice in 2 L stirred tank bioreactor with in situ gas stripping recovery

Biobutanol has generated renewed interest of being a sustainable alternate fuel. As butanol can fully miscible with diesel fuel even at low temperatures, better fuel extender than ethanol, low vapour pressure, low miscibility with water and has higher price, making it most potential solvent compared to acetone and ethanol. Previous study shows that biobutanol can be biosynthesized from oil palm frond (OPF) juice by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 in the lab scale experiment. Thus, this paper focused on the synthesis and characterization of the OPF juice as fermentation substrate for biobutanol production in 2 L batch fermentation using 50 g/L OPF juice. 14.0 g/L biobutanol was produced in batch fermentation. The research was further extended with fed-batch experiment and in situ gas stripping. 71.5% acetone, 36.5% biobutanol and 18.4% ethanol were stripped out from the fermentation broth during first gas stripping interval (42-48 h). After 120 h, total of 395 g/L biobutanol was stripped out. Thus, it was proven that OPF juice can be used as an alternative carbon source for biobutanol production while fed-batch fermentation with in situ gas stripping method improved the biobutanol production from OPF juice

Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass from pineapple leaves by using endo-1,4xylanase : Effect of pH, temperature, enzyme loading and reaction time

Pineapple leaves; is one of lignocellulosic materials that composed of about 80% of carbohydrate containing lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose This waste still retains a considerable amount of soluble sugars that can be transformed into valuable fermentable sugars. This research was conducted to study the effect of different pH, temperature, enzyme loading and reaction time in order to identify the best working conditions to produce the highest yield of sugar. Prior to enzymatic hydrolysis, the pineapple leaves were subjected to hydrothermal pretreatment in order to obtain the hydrolysate liquid. Enzymatic hydrolysis was then carried out by using endo-1,4-xylanase and the reducing sugar was analyzed by using dinitrosalicylic (DNS) method. The result has shown that the highest reducing sugar concentration of 70.9 mg/L was obtained both at pH 5.5 and 50 °C. In addition, the best enzyme loading and reaction time were recorded at 0.5% (w/v) and 45 min that resulted 60.1 mg/L and 72. 0 mg/L respectively

A study of butanol production in a batch oscillatory baffled bioreactor

As with many bioprocesses, the acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation faces a number of economic drawbacks when compared to the petrochemical route for butanol production. In the 1920s biobutanol was the second largest biotechnology industry, after bioethanol production. However it became difficult to compete against the petrochemical route for reasons in cluding the low product butanol concentration, because of product inhibition resu lted in low butanol productivity and due to slow fermentation and low ABE yields. These lead to uneconomical butanol recovery by the conventional method, distillation, due to the high degree of dilution. Recent interest in biobutanol as a biofuel has led to re-examination of ABE fermentation with the aim of improving solvent yield, volumetric productivity and final solvent concentration to reduce the cost of production and thereby produce biobutanol that is cost-competitive with the chemical synthesis butanol. ABE fermentations were carried out in an intensified plug flow reactor known as the batch oscillatory baffled bioreactor (BOBB). The "BOBB"s were designed and built for this project. The effect of oscillatory flow mixing on ABE fermentation was compared to that of conventional stirred tank reactors (STRs) at power densities in the range 0 to 1.14 wm•3. The maximum butanol concentration in this range in a BOBB was 34% higher than the STR. Some increase in butanol productivity was also observed : 0.13 gL-1h•1 in BOBBs, compared to 0.11 gL-1h•1 in the STRs. It can be concluded that at similar power densities, BOBB fermentation shifts to solventogenesis earlier than in STRs, res ulting in higher solvent productivity. It is hypothesised that the reason for early solventogenesis in the BOBB was the higher so lvent-producing cell concentration, due to the more uniform shear field in the BOBB, so the cell would be less exposed to high shear thereby reducing the risk of cell lysis. Two-stage ABE fermentations in BOBB increased the butanol productivity by up to 37.5% over the one-stage fermentation. Butanol productivity was further increased by 97% when gas stripping was integrated to the two-stage ABE fermentation. While the one-stage fermentation integrated with gas stripping increased the butanol productivity by 69% to 0.12 gL-1h•1 {as opposed to 0.071 gl-1h-1 in a similar fermentation without gas stripping). A simple model to describe the one-stage at oscillatory Reynolds number (Re0 ) 0 and 938, and the two-stage ABE fermentation in BOBB II was developed. The model summarizes the physiologica l aspects of growth and metabolite synthesis by Clostridium GBL1082. The prediction of the models were in good agreement with experimental results incorporating mixing (Re0 938} and moderately agreed with results from Re0 0 and the two-stage fermentation

Oscillatory Flow Reactor Design for Biological Process

Oscillatory flow reactor (OFR) is a novel type of tubular reactor consisting of equally spaced orifice baffles (sometimes called doughnut baffles) fitted inside the column of the reactor. OFR can be used for biological and chemical processes such as crystallisation of paracetamol, biofuel production, and production of sterols in ester saponification reactions. The aim of the study is to design and fabricate the oscillatory flow reactor for the purpose of biological process. In order to achieve turbulence flow inside the reactor, parameters such as reactor, baffles dimension, and type of oscillation system were considered prior to the design work. Autodesk: AutoCAD® 2016 was used to draw the reactor parts. The OFR was fabricated in the Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering (FKKSA) workshop in Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). A complete OFR consists of three main parts which are reactor column, baffles plate and oscillation system. The OFR column was made from 304 grade stainless steel with dimensions of 500 mm in height and 60 mm internal in diameter so that it can fit in an autoclave and can withstand high temperatures and pressures. Due to the OFR’s capability of mixing and transferring oxygen in gas-liquid phase, it was be further tested to evaluate its capability as bioreactor including the characterisation test based on its ability to maintain sterility, fluid loss due to evaporation, and the temperature profile

Effect of Pre-treatment Processes to Ferulic Acid Extraction from Banana Stem Waste

The present of ferulic acid (FA) in plants attract the attention of many researchers, especially in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Banana stem waste (BSW) was generated from banana plantation. In this study, FA was extracted from BSW by using sugarcane press machine. Effect of two pre-treatment processes to ferulic acid extraction were studied namely the ultraviolet (UV) light pre-treatment and heating of BSW before extraction. Response surface method was utilized to construct the experimental table and to analyze the influences of both pre-treatment processes. The selected ranges for both pre-treatment processes were as follows : UV light (with or without) and heating temperature (25oC-90oC). The FA was analyzed by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and FA yield ranging from 0.0010mg/g to 0.1204 mg/g. The analysis of the results showed that heating BSW before extraction increased the ferulic acid yield however UV light pre-treatment did not give significant effect to ferulic acid extraction