Storage of Heat, Cold and Electricity.

A promising energy storage system is presented based on the combination of a heat pump, a heat engine, a hot and a cold storage. It can be operated as a pure bulk electricity storage (alternative to Pumped Heat Electrical Storage (PHES)/Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)) or as combined storage of heat, cold and electricity. Both variations have been evaluated using a steady state, thermodynamic model and two promising concepts are proposed: A transcritical CO(2) cycle for the pure electricity storage and a subcritical NH(3) cycle for combined storage of electricity, heat and cold. Parametric studies are used to evaluate the influence of different parameters on the roundtrip efficiency of the storage system.

Plasmid transfer via transduction from Streptococcus thermophilus to Lactococcus lactis.

Using Streptococcus thermophilus phages, plasmid transduction in Lactococcus lactis was demonstrated. The transduction frequencies were 4 orders of magnitude lower in L. lactis than in S. thermophilus. These results are the first evidence that there is phage-mediated direct transfer of DNA from S. thermophilus to L. lactis. The implications of these results for phage evolution are discussed.

Production of yoghurt with mild taste by a Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus mutant with altered proteolytic properties.

In this communication, we describe the isolation of a Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus 92063 mutant strain named pH-P11, which differed from the parent strain by low proteolytic activity and altered regulation of expression of lacZ in the presence of glucose or lactose. In the presence of lactose, beta-galactosidase activity was approximately twice as high in pH-P11 than in the wild type. pH-P11 exhibited protosymbiosis together with Streptococcus thermophilus. Yoghurt produced with pH-P11 was characterized by low acidity and little post-acidification during storage. The organoleptic properties (absence of bitterness and other off-flavors, weak sourness, and clear yoghurt taste) were those of a typical "yoghurt mild". This mild flavor was achieved at rather high cell counts of lactobacilli even at the end of shelf-life. High cell counts in conjunction with high beta-galactosidase activity make pH-P11 an interesting strain for application in yoghurt especially designed for consumers with lactose malabsorption. In contrast to "yoghurt mild", which is predominantly produced with Lactobacillus acidophilus together with Streptococcus thermophilus, the product obtained by fermentation with pH-P11 and Streptococcus thermophilus concurs with international standards for yoghurt. During frequent sub-culturing, strain pH-P11, which is supposed to differ from the wild type by one or a few so-far-not-characterized mutations, showed sufficient stability for application in industrial production.