Heavy Metals Biosorption by Powdered Rhizopus Oligosporus Biomass

The biosorption of several metals by powdered biomass of Rhizopus oligosporus was investigated. Cells of Rhizopus olzgosporus were cultured, harvested, washed, oven dried and mixed in solutions containing lead, copper, cadmium and aluminium ions. After an equilibration period, the biomass was separated from the metal bearing solution and the content of heavy metals were determined by an Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. The biosorption of metal ions was increased with increasing initial concentration of heavy metal. The heavy metal uptake capacity increased in the order: copper (73.50 mg/g) > lead (60.90 mg/g) > cadmium (30.15 mg/g) > aluminium (26.60 mg/g). Langmuir Adsorption Model was suitable for describing the biosorption of lead, cadmium, aluminium and copper. Reciprocal Langmuir Transformation and Scatchard analysis revealed that different types of binding sites are involved in the biosorption process. pH regulation of the process can enhance the biosorption capacity for all metals tested The optimum pH for lead, cadmium, aluminum and copper are 5, 4, 4 and 6 respectively The possibility for desorption the metals from loaded biomass usmg HCI and NaOH were tested The desorption efficiency for HCl and NaOH increased with Increasing concentration of HCl and NaOH HCl was more efficient than NaOH The possibility of removing heavy metal from industrial wastes was also investigated For electroplating wastes, the heavy metals uptake capacities Increased m the order lead (0.44 mg/g) > cadmium (0.11 mg/g) > copper (0.09 mg/g) For aluminum wastes, the heavy metals uptake capacities increased In the order cadmium (0.12 mg/g) > copper (0.10 mg/g)

The comparative recovery performance of anion exchange and dye-ligand fluidised bed adsorption of G3PDH from unclarified yeast extract

The comparative recovery performance of anion exchange and dye ligand fluidised bed adsorption of intracellular enzyme, glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) from unclarified disrupted yeast has been undertaken. The commercially available anion exchanger, Streamline QXL and the kiesleguhr-agarose composite adsorbent, Microsorb K6AX derived with dye-ligand (Cibaron Blue 3GA) were employed in fluidized bed experiments. The adsorbents were evaluated in respect of recovery performance in terms of yield, purity and enzyme specific activity

Production of adenoviral vectors in 293 cells: a case study of the adaptation of attached cells to grow in suspension

A study of the production of adenoviral vectors in suspension 293 cells has been explored. A defined serumfree medium (293 SFM II) formulated without human or animal origin components from Invitrogen was used for the suspension adapted 293 cells. It was demonstrated that the 293 cells can be adapted to grow in suspension using serum free medium. The effect of different cell culture parameters was determined. The production technique demonstrated here is expected to simplify purification processes and circumvents the problems associated with serum containing medium

Physical characterisations of a single-stage Kühni-type aqueous two-phase extraction column

The main parameters which influence the behaviour of phase separation in a single-stage Kühni-type aqueous two-phase extraction column containing polyethylene (PEG) and di-potassium hydrogen phosphate were characterised. Two aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) composed of 12% (w/w) PEG 1450 and 12% (w/w) di-potassium hydrogen phosphate (designated as 12/12) and 12% (w/w) PEG 1450 and 11% (w/w) di-potassium hydrogen phosphate (designated as 12/11) were chosen in this study. The hold-up D increased with increasing impeller speeds and mobile phase flow rates. Phase separation for the 12/11 system was slower than that for the 12/12 system, which resulted in higher dispersed phase hold-up values for the 12/11 system. For 12/12 system, mass transfer of plasmid DNA (pDNA) from the dispersed mobile phase to the stationary phase increased rapidly with increasing impeller speeds of 130, 160 and 200 rpm which was reflected in the decreased values for CT/CTo. The degree of back-mixing quantified by the axial dispersion coefficient Dax was estimated to be 2.7 × 10−6 m2 s−1

Selective partition of plasmid DNA and RNA in aqueous two-phase systems by the addition of neutral salt.

The selective partition of plasmid DNA (pDNA) and RNA in polyethylene glycol (PEG) and di-potassium hydrogen phosphate aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) by addition of NaCl salt was studied with pure pDNA and RNA solutions. The pDNA is increasingly excluded from top phases upon the addition of 0.5% and 3% (w/w) NaCl. With 3% (w/w) NaCl, the logarithmic partition coefficient of RNA was 1.2 and as a result, the RNA concentration in the top phase was 3.3-fold higher than that in the bottom phase. It is demonstrated that 47%, 13.7% and 7.5% (w/v) of PEG were required to achieve identical precipitation effects with PEG 300, 1450 and 6000, respectively. The precipitation efficiency of 6.3% (w/v) PEG 300 corresponds to that of 1% (w/v) PEG 6000. The excluded volume effects in the top phase were probably responsible for the selective exclusion of different nucleic acids species. The results obtained in this study contribute to the basic knowledge of partition of macromolecules in ATPSs in terms of excluded volume theory

Partition of plasmid DNA in polymer-salt aqueous two phase systems

The partition of plasmid DNA (pDNA) in polyethylene glycol (PEG)–phosphate aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) is presented. A high molecular weight (HMW) and a low molecular weight (LMW) polymer, PEG-1450 and -300, were used in combination with di-potassium hydrogen phosphate. The experimental results demonstrated that the plasmid pTX0161 displays a varied partition behaviour in PEG–phosphate ATPS. In HMW PEG (PEG-1450–phosphate systems), pDNA partitioned to the bottom phase only. In LMW PEG (PEG-300–phosphate systems), pDNA partitioned to all of the phases with respect to the phase composition, system temperature and concentration of lysate used in the ATPS. In systems with volume ratios higher than one, pDNA was mainly recovered in the top phase. For volume ratios between 0.5 and 1, pDNA mainly partitioned to the interface. In systems with volume ratios below 0.5, most of the pDNA was recovered in the bottom phase. For temperatures between 4 and 25°C, the partition to the top phase decreased whereas partition to the interface steadily increased. At 25°C, over 80% of pDNA was recovered in the interface. The partition to the bottom phase increased steadily with increasing temperatures up to 40°C and the partition to the interface decreased. At 20°C, the recovery of pDNA in the interface gradually increased and reached a maximum at 60% (w/w) lysate with 80% recovery recorded. At 25°C, over 80% of pDNA was recovered in the interface from lysate concentrations greater than 35% (w/w). At 30°C, the top phase preference changed to an interface preference between 0 and 20% (w/w) lysate

The performance of a glass bead shaking technique for the disruption of Escherichia coli cells

The efficacy of a simple laboratory method for cell disruption based on the shaking of glass beads on a rotary shaker was assessed in this study, via measurements of the release of total protein and interferon-α2b from E.coli. The optimum conditions for cell disruption were detected after 30 min of shaking in Tris-HCl buffer (pH 8) at 300 rpm with 1.5g of glass beads (diameter: 0.5 mm) per mL of cell suspension volume. Three test runs were conducted under the above conditions and the maximum average protein release values were determined as 3.048, 3.564, and 3.015 mg/mL, respectively. The amount of protein release was comparable to the amount of protein release in ultrasonication and glass bead vortexing procedures. The amount of interferon-α2b release in the ultrasonication, glass bead vortexing, and glass bead shaking trials were 240, 172, and 201 ng/mL, respectively. This method was shown to process between 1 and 10 mL of sample volume in a 50 mL Falcon tube without a great deal of deviation, and was able to handle in excess of 60 samples simultaneously

Optimization of Sunflower Oil Transesterification Process Using Sodium Methoxide

In this study, the methanolysis process of sunflower oil was investigated to get high methyl esters (biodiesel) content using sodium methoxide. To reach to the best process conditions, central composite design (CCD) through response surface methodology (RSM) was employed. The optimal conditions predicted were the reaction time of 60 min, an excess stoichiometric amount of alcohol to oil ratio of 25%w/w and the catalyst content of 0.5%w/w, which lead to the highest methyl ester content (100%w/w). The methyl ester content of the mixture from gas chromatography analysis (GC) was compared to that of optimum point. Results, confirmed that there was no significant difference between the fatty acid methyl ester content of sunflower oil produced under the optimized condition and the experimental value (P ≥ 0.05). Furthermore, some fuel specifications of the resultant biodiesel were tested according to American standards for testing of materials (ASTM) methods. The outcome showed that the methyl ester mixture produced from the optimized condition met nearly most of the important biodiesel specifications recommended in ASTM D 6751 requirements. Thus, the sunflower oil methyl esters resulted from this study could be a suitable alternative for petrol diesels

Integration of mechanical cell disruption and fluidised bed recovery of G3PDH from unclarified disrupted yeast: a comparative study of the performance of unshielded and polymer shielded dye-ligand chromatography systems

The development of a simplified process for the simultaneous disruption and direct selective purification of intracellular proteins from unclarified yeast disruptate has been investigated. The recovery of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) from baker's yeast was selected as a potential demonstration of the generic applicability and practical feasibility of this integrated technique. The application of an adsorbent characterised by high density (UpFront steel-agarose; ρ = 2.65 g ml−1) facilitated the combining of cell disruption operation (bead milling of 50% ww/v of yeast suspension at 7.2 l h−1) with fluidised bed dye-ligand (Cibacron Blue 3GA) adsorption operated immediately downstream of the disrupter. The adoption of a polymer shielded, dye-ligand technique advanced recovery efficiency. It was demonstrated that G3PDH could be recovered with a yield of 67.5% bound activity and a specific activity of 40.2 IU mg−1, after a single step elution with 0.15 M NaCl. The generic application of this approach has been evaluated

Effect of polymer shielding on elution of G3PDH bound to dye-ligand adsorbent

Batch binding experiments were performed to assess the recovery performance of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) bound to the unshielded and polymer (polyvinyl pyrrolidone, PVP)-shielded dye-ligand (Cibacron Blue 3GA) adsorbent. The adoption of a polymer-shielded, dye-ligand technique facilitated the elution efficiency of bound G3PDH. It was demonstrated that the recovery of G3PDH using polymer-shielded dye-ligand adsorption yielded higher elution efficiency, at 60.5% and a specific activity of 42.3 IU/mg, after a low ionic strength elution (0.15 M NaCl). The unshielded dye-ligand yielded lower elution efficiency, at 6.5% and a specific activity of 10.2 IU/mg