Effect of nitrate feeding strategies on lipid and biomass productivities in fed-batch cultures of Nannochloropsis gaditana.

Controlled nitrate feeding strategies for fed-batch cultures of microalgae were applied for the enhancement of lipid production and microalgal growth rates. In particular, in this study, the effect of nitrate feeding rates on lipid and biomass productivities in fed-batch cultures of Nannochloropsis gaditana were investigated using three feeding modes (i.e., pulse, continuous, and staged) and under two light variations on both lipid productivity and fatty acid compositions. Higher nitrate levels negatively affected lipid production in the study. Increasing the light intensity increased the lipid contents of the microalgae in all three fed-batch feeding modes. A maximum of 58.3% lipid- to dry weight ratio was achieved when using pulse-fed cultures at an illumination of 200 µmol photons m-2  s-1 and 10 mg/day of nitrate feeding. This condition also resulted in the maximum lipid productivity of 44.6 mg L-1  day-1 . The fatty acid compositions of the lipids consisted predominantly of long-chain fatty acids (C:16 and C:18) and accounted for 70% of the overall fatty acid methyl esters. Pulse feeding mode was found to significantly enhance the biomass and lipid production. The other two feeding modes (continuous and staged) were not ideal for lipid and biomass production. This study demonstrates the applicability of pulse feeding strategies in fed-batch cultures as an appropriate cultivation strategy that can increase both lipid accumulation and biomass production.

Soy protein recovery in a solvent-free process using continuous liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed ion exchanger.

Soy protein concentrates and soy protein isolates act as ingredients in bakery, meat and dairy products, baby formulas, starting materials for spun textured vegetable products, and other nutritional supplements. In this study, the effectiveness of a liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed (LSCFB) ion exchanger is demonstrated for the recovery of soluble soy proteins from full fat and defatted soy flour. Under steady-state operating conditions, about 50% of the proteins could be recovered from the feed streams entering the ion exchanger. The LSCFB was shown to be a promising system for the recovery of soy protein from both defatted and full fat soy flour solutions. As the ion exchange process captures dissolved proteins, the system may offer a less damaging form of processing compared with the acid precipitation process where soy protein aggregates form and functionality is affected. In addition, the LSCFB allows simultaneous adsorption and desorption of the proteins allowing for a continuous operation. No prefiltration of feed containing suspended particles is required as well, because fluidization is used in place of packed bed technology to improve on current ion exchange processes.

Modeling and simulation of liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed ion exchange system for continuous protein recovery.

Liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed (LSCFB) is an integrated two-column (downcomer and riser) system which can accommodate two separate processes (adsorption and desorption) in the same unit with continuous circulation of the solid particles between the two columns. In this study, a mathematical model based on the assumption of homogeneous fluidization was developed considering hydrodynamics, adsorption-desorption kinetics and liquid-solid mass transfer. The simulation results showed good agreement with the available experimental results for continuous protein recovery. A parametric sensitivity study was performed to better understand the influence of different operating parameters on the BSA adsorption and desorption capacity of the system. The model developed can easily be extended to other applications of LSCFB.

Multiobjective optimization of the operation of a liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed ion-exchange system for continuous protein recovery.

Like most real-life processes, the operation of liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed (LSCFB) system for continuous protein recovery is associated with several objectives such as maximization of production rate and recovery of protein, and minimization of amount solid ion-exchange resin requirement, all of which need to be optimized simultaneously. In this article, multiobjective optimization of a LSCFB system for continuous protein recovery was carried out using an experimentally validated mathematical model to find the scope for further improvements in its operation. Elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm with its jumping gene adaptation was used to solve a number of bi- and tri-objective function optimization problems. The optimization resulted in Pareto-optimal solution, which provides a broad range of non-dominated solutions due to conflicting behavior of the operating parameters on the system performance indicators. Significant improvements were achieved, for example, the production rate at optimal operation increased by 33%, using 11% less solid compared to reported experimental results for the same recovery level. The effects of operating variables on the optimal solutions are discussed in detail. The multiobjective optimization study reported here can be easily extended for the improvement of LSCFB system for other applications.

Bioelectronic imaging array based on bacteriorhodopsin film.

A photoreceptor array that exploits the light sensitive bacteriorhodopsin (bR) films has been manufactured on a flexible indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated plastic film using electrophoretic sedimentation technique (EPS). The effective sensing area of each photoreceptor is 2 x 2 mm (2), separated by 1 mm and arranged in a 4 x 4 array. A switched integrator with gain on the order of 10(10) is used to amplify the signal to a suitable level. When exposed to light, the differential response characteristic is attributed to charge displacement and recombination within bR molecules, as well as loading effects of the attached amplifier. The peak spectral response occurs at 568 nm and is linear over the tested light power range of 200 mu W to 12 mW. The response remains linear at other tested wavelengths, but with reduced amplitude. Initial tests have indicated that responsivity among all photoreceptors is greater than 71% of the average value, 465.25 mV/mW. The differential nature of the signal generated by bR makes it a suitable sensing material for vision applications such as motion detection. The prototype array demonstrates this property by employing Reichardt's delay-and-correlate algorithm. Furthermore, fabricating sensor arrays on flexible substrates introduces a new design approach that enables non-planar imaging surfaces.

Investigation of a dual-particle liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed bioreactor for extractive fermentation of lactic acid.

A dual-particle liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed (DP-LSCFB) bioreactor has been constructed and investigated for the simultaneous production and extraction of lactic acid using immobilized Lactobacillus bulgaricus and ion-exchange resins. The apparatus consisted of a downer fluidized bed, 13 cm I.D. and 4.75 m tall, and a riser fluidized bed, 3.8 cm I.D. and 5.15 m in height. The lactic acid production and removal was carried out in the downer, while the riser was used for the recovery of lactic acid. A continuously recirculating bed of ion-exchange resin was used for adsorption of the produced acid as well as for maintaining optimum pH for bioconversion, thus eliminating the need for costly and complex chemical control approach used in conventional techniques. Studies using lactic acid aqueous solution as feed and sodium hydroxide solution as regeneration stream showed 93% lactic acid removal from the downer and 46% recovery in the riser under the conditions investigated. Such results prove the functionality of using the newly developed bioreactor design for the continuous production and recovery of products of biotechnological significance.

Candida rugosa lipase-catalyzed polyurethane degradation in aqueous medium.

Candida rugosa lipase (EC 3.1.1.3) was used to degrade commercially-available solid poly(ester)urethane (Impranil) in an aqueous medium under different temperature, pH, enzyme and substrate concentrations. A mathematical model was developed and applied to represent the degradation kinetics of the solid polyurethane. Reaction optima were found to be pH 7 and 35 degrees C. Diethylene glycol, a degradation byproduct, generation rate was measured to be 0.12 mg/l min and the activation energy was calculated as 9.121 kcal/gmol K. This information will be useful in developing bioreactors for practical applications to manage polyurethane wastes using lipase.

Long term performance of MBR for biological nitrogen removal from synthetic municipal wastewater.

This study monitors the long term performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of synthetic municipal wastewater at solid retention time (SRT) of 40 and 20d with particular emphasis on simultaneous nitrification-denitrification (SND). SND was greatly influenced by the operating dissolved oxygen (DO). It was found that at an SRT of 20d, nitrogen removal through assimilation into biomass increases as a result of higher biomass yield. The profile of soluble microbial products (SMP) conformed to a cyclical pattern in the MBR with respect to SRT. Decrease in SRT from 40 to 20d resulted in doubling of accumulated SMP concentration (to 56mgl(-1)) in the MBR. This however, was accompanied by a simultaneous drop in percentage of SMP with MW>100kD, from 42.4% to 33%. Also, the sludge filterability decreased by 24-folds despite a decrease in the biomass concentration, following the above reduction in SRT. It was found that the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (K(l)a) was a function of biomass concentration in MBR with the ratio of the oxygen transfer coefficient in mixed liquor to that of clean water (alpha) to be 0.2-0.5.

Chelating properties and molecular weight distribution of soluble microbial products from an aerobic membrane bioreactor.

This paper presents a detailed study on soluble microbial products (SMPs) in an aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) treating synthetic wastewater simulating municipal wastewater. The concentration of SMP in the reactor conformed to a cyclical pattern of accumulation and reduction in relation to SRT. The molecular weight (MW) distribution of accumulated SMP was determined to vary from <1kD to >100kD. Copper chelating properties of various SMP fractions in the MBR were compared before and after copper addition to the feed. The conditional stability constant (LogcK), complexation capacity (Cc), and SMP-ligand concentration (CL) were evaluated to determine the impact of copper on the chelating properties. The results indicated that accumulated SMP in the aerobic MBRs without copper addition are moderate chelators with LogcK values of 7.6-8.3 mol(-1) for the moderate ligands and 6.3-6.8 mol(-1) for the relatively weaker ligands. SMPs with MW of 1-10 kD were found to have the highest complexation capacity among all SMP fractions. The complexation capacity of accumulated SMP after feeding copper was 0.11 micromol/mg of SMP, almost half of its value prior to feeding copper. The reduction of C(c) after feeding copper was a result of an increase in large molecular weight SMP (>100 kD).

Photoelectric properties of a detector based on dried bacteriorhodopsin film.

The photoelectric response of a detector using dried bacteriorhodopsin (bR) film as the light sensing material is mathematically modeled and experimentally verified in this paper. The photocycle and proton transfer kinetics of dried bR film differ dramatically from the more commonly studied aqueous bR material because of the dehydration process. The photoelectric response of the dried film is generated by charge displacement and recombination instead of transferring a proton from the cytoplasmic side to the extracellular side of the cell membrane. In this work, the wild-type bR samples are electrophoretically deposited onto an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode to construct a simple multiple layered photo-detector with high sensitivity to small changes in incident illumination. The light absorption characteristics of the thin bR film are mathematically represented using the kinetics of the bR photocycle and the charge displacement theorem. An electrically equivalent RC circuit is used to describe the intrinsic photoelectric properties of the film and external measurement circuitry to analyze the detector's response characteristics. Simulated studies and experimental results show that the resistance of the dried bR film is in the order of 10(11) Omega. When the input impedance of the measurement circuitry is one order of magnitude smaller than the dried film, the detector exhibits a strong differential response to the original time-varying light signal. An analytical solution of the equivalent circuit also reveals that the resistance and capacitance values exhibited by the dried bR film, in the absence of incident light, are almost twice as large as the values obtained while the material is under direct illumination. Experimental observations and a predictive model both support the notion that dried bR film can be used in simple highly sensitive photo-detector designs.

A review of plastic waste biodegradation.

With more and more plastics being employed in human lives and increasing pressure being placed on capacities available for plastic waste disposal, the need for biodegradable plastics and biodegradation of plastic wastes has assumed increasing importance in the last few years. This review looks at the technological advancement made in the development of more easily biodegradable plastics and the biodegradation of conventional plastics by microorganisms. Additives, such as pro-oxidants and starch, are applied in synthetic materials to modify and make plastics biodegradable. Recent research has shown that thermoplastics derived from polyolefins, traditionally considered resistant to biodegradation in ambient environment, are biodegraded following photo-degradation and chemical degradation. Thermoset plastics, such as aliphatic polyester and polyester polyurethane, are easily attacked by microorganisms directly because of the potential hydrolytic cleavage of ester or urethane bonds in their structures. Some microorganisms have been isolated to utilize polyurethane as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen source. Aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters have active commercial applications because of their good mechanical properties and biodegradability. Reviewing published and ongoing studies on plastic biodegradation, this paper attempts to make conclusions on potentially viable methods to reduce impacts of plastic waste on the environment.