Vision and strategy

Like other applications of biotechnology, modern bioprocess technology is an extension of ancient techniques for developing useful products by taking advantage of natural biological activities.

When our early ancestors made alcoholic beverages, they used a bioprocess: the combination of yeast cells and nutrients (cereal grains) formed a fermentation system in which the organisms consumed the nutrients for their own growth and produced byproducts (alcohol and carbon dioxide gas) that helped to make the beverage. Although more sophisticated, today's bioprocess technology is based on the same principle: combining living matter (whole organisms or enzymes) with nutrients under the conditions necessary to make the desired end product.

 This

bio processing or a series of reactions take place in large tanks called fermentors and the process is known as fermentation. Industrial microbiology uses microorganisms, typically grown on a large scale, to produce valuable commercial products or to carry out important chemical transformations. This process is commonly referred to as Fermentation Further it can be classified into liquid state fermentation and solid state fermentation.

Solid state: water content: 40~ 80%, mostly mold fermentation on agriculture products and food: rice, wheat, barley, corn and soya bean. e.g. rotary drum fermentator

- Submerged systems: water content > 95% e.g. bacteria, yeast.

Fermentation occurs in fruits, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, as well as in mammalian muscle. Fermentation (tea) - used in the tea industry for the aerobic treatment of tea leaves to break down certain unwanted chemicals and modify others to develop the flavor of the tea Fermentation (food) - the conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols or acids under anaerobic conditions used for making certain foods. Fermentation (wine) the process of fermentation commonly used in wine making

Bioprocesses have become widely used in several fields of commercial biotechnology Production of enzymes (used, for example, in food processing and waste management) Antibiotics Food, beverages and Food Colors Vitamins Nutraceuticals And a multitude of value-added biomaterials As techniques and instrumentation are refined, bioprocesses may have applications in other areas where chemical processes are now used.

Some examples

Protease (subtilisin, rennet)

Hydrolases (pectinase, lipase, lactase)

Isomerases (glucose isomerase) Oxidases (glucose oxidase) Produced using overproducing strains of certain organisms.

 Proteases

Overproducing strains of Bacillus, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, and Mucor.

Pectinases

Aspergillus niger.
Yeast and Aspergillus. Certain strains of yeast and fungi.

Lactases Lipases Glucose

isomerase

Flavobecterium arborescens or Bacillus coagulans

 Cultivate

the organisms producing the desired

enzymes. Production can be regulated Fermentation conditions can be optimized for overproduction.

 Disruption

of cells Removal of debris and nucleic acids Precipitation of proteins Ultra filtration of the desired enzyme Chromatographic separation Crystallization Drying

 The

process depends on whether or not the enzyme is intra or extracellular. inactive (dead or resting) cells are used with desired enzyme activity in immobilized form. No separation and/or purification steps Reduces costs

Sometimes

 Increasing
Enzymes

in wider ranges of process conditions.

grow in unusual environments (eg: deep ocean, salt lakes, and hot springs) enzymes and better control allow the use of enzymes in more extreme environments.

New

 Cheese Baking Meat

making (rennet)

tenderization (papain, trypsin) Brewing (trypsin, pepsin) Detergents (subtilisin Carlsberg) Tanning products Medical treatments of wounds

 Specialized

manufacturer of zinc bacitracin in

China.

 Second

largest developer and manufacturer of industrial enzymes. the first industrial scale, recombinant enzyme in 1988. in the areas of protein engineering, expression/secretion technology and enzymesubstrate interaction.

Introduced

Leader

 Novozymes.com
Largest

producers of enzymes. World Headquarter: Denmark (1941). More than 500 enzymes in over 130 countries.

 Antibiotics

are chemical substances produced by microorganisms to kill other microorganisms. They are used in the treatment of infectious diseases.

 Microbial

cell (Biomass)

Food

Yeast Microbial enzymes Glucose isomerase Microbial metabolites Penicillin

products Cheese, yoghurt, vinegar Vitamins B12, riboflavin Transformation reactions Steroid biotransformation

Aerobic Anaerobic

 Adequate

aeration adequate supply of sterile air

Bioreactors In

addition, these fermenters may have a mechanism for stirring and mixing of the medium and cells enzymes, vitamins.

Antibiotics,

 In

anaerobic fermentation, a provision for aeration is usually not needed. acid, ethanol, wine

Lactic

 Batch

mode Fed batch mode (continuous)

Antibiotic
Cephalosporin Chloramphenicol Erythromycin Griseofulvin Penicillin Streptomycin Tetracycline Gentamicin

Producing microorganism
Cephalosporium acrimonium Streptomyces venezuelae Streptomyces erythreus Penicillium griseofulvin Penicillium chrysogenum Streptomyces griseus Streptomyces aureofaciens Micromonospora purpurea

 All

penicillin like antibiotics inhibit synthesis of peptidoglycan, an essential part of the cell wall.

They

do not interfere with the synthesis of other intracellular components. antibiotics do not affect human cells because human cells do not have cell walls.

These

 Penicillins
Some

are active against Gram positive bacteria

members (e.g. amoxicillin) are also effective against Gram negative bacteria but not Pseudomonas aeruginosa

 Penicillin

was the first important commercial product

produced by an aerobic, submerged fermentation antibiotic to have been manufacture in bulk.

First Used

as input material for some semi synthetic antibiotics. is fermented in a batch culture

It

 When

penicillin was first made at the end of the second world war using the fungus Penicillium notatum, the process made 1 mg dm-3.
using a different species (P. chrysogenum) and a better extraction procedures the yield is 50 g dm-3. is a constant search to improve the yield.

Today,

There

 Improvement
Isolation

in composition of the medium

of better penicillin producing mold sp. Penicillium chrysogenum which grow better in huge deep fermentation tank of submerged culture technique for cultivation of mold in large volume of liquid medium through which sterile air is forced.

Development

 Foods

that have been subjected to the action of microorganisms or enzymes, in order to bring about a desirable change. food products owe their production and characteristics to the fermentative activities of microorganisms. foods originated many thousands of years ago when presumably micro-organism contaminated local foods.

Numerous

Fermented

 Micro-organisms

cause changes in the foods which: Help to preserve the food, Extend shelf-life considerably over that of the raw materials from which they are made, Improve aroma and flavour characteristics, Increase its vitamin content or its digestibility compared to the raw materials.

Mushrooms Soy sauce Wine Fermented milk Cheese Beer Bread Fermented Meats Sourdough bread Fish sauce Pickled vegetables Tea

Food

Approximate year of introduction 4000 BC 3000 BC 3000 BC 3000 BC 2000 BC 2000 BC 1500 BC 1500 BC 1000 BC 1000 BC 1000 BC 200 BC

Region China China, Korea, Japan North Africa, Europe Middle East Middle East North Africa, China Egypt, Europe Middle East Europe Southeast Asia, North Africa China, Europe China

 The

term biological ennoblement has been used to describe the nutritional benefits of fermented foods. foods comprise about one-third of the world wide consumption of food and 20- 40 % (by weight) of individual diets.

Fermented

Food Cheese Yoghurt Mushrooms

Quantity (t) 15 million 3 million 1.5 million 300 000 250 000

Beverage Beer Wine

Quantity (hl) 1000 million 350 million

Fish sauce
Dried stockfish

Benefit

Raw material Milk (Most materials) Fruit Barley Grapes Meat Cassava Soybean Wheat Leafy veges. Coconut Milk Coffee beans Grapes

Fermented food Yoghurt, cheese Vinegar Beer Wine Salami Gari, polviho azedo Soy sauce Bread Kimchi, sauerkraut Nata de coco Bifidus milk, Yakult, Acidophilus yoghurt Coffee Wine

Preservation Enhancement of safety

Acid production Acid and alcohol production

Production of bacteriocins Removal of toxic components

Enhancement of nutritional value

Improved digestibility Retention of micronutrients Increased fibre content Synthesis of probiotic compounds

Improvement of flavour

Biomass

Bioconversion

Methane or ethyl alcohol

 Sewage

treatment plants Bioremediation- use of microbes to dispose of chemical wastes 3 strains of microbes can Deactivate Aroclor 1260- a toxic PCB Others detoxify cyanide and dioxin Use GMO microbes

Because bioprocesses use living material, they offer several advantages over conventional chemical methods of production: they usually require lower temperature, pressure, and pH (the measure of acidity); they can use renewable resources as raw materials; and greater quantities can be produced with less energy consumption.

Bioprocessing can increase the shelf life of foods by inhibiting the enzymatic deterioration of plant tissues. It can enhance the texture, flavor and odor of foods. For example, the compound diacetyl is produced by various lactic acid bacteria during dairy fermentations (i.e. cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk). This compound is responsible for the buttery aroma and taste typically associated with these products. Fermentation helps food to be stored safely.

Fermentation allows humans to enjoy their favorite foods in a different way by creating a variety of flavors, textures, color, and appearance of some foods.
Fermentation is also used to create new energy sources such as ethanol.

The vitamin content of some foods can be increased. Digestibility can be improved. The toxicity of some foods (particularly oriental) may be decreased. Some scientists believe that particular types of fermented milk products (i.e. acidophilus milk, yogurt) have a therapeutic value and can be beneficial in cases of alimentary disorders (i.e. constipation, diarrhea, etc.) and may even preclude the development and outgrowth of harmful bacteria.

In most bioprocesses, enzymes are used to catalyze the biochemical reactions of whole microorganisms or their cellular components. The biological catalyst causes the reactions to occur, but is not itself changed. After a series of such reactions (which take place in large vessels called fermenters or fermentation tanks), the initial raw materials are chemically changed to form the desired end product. Although it sounds quite simple, this procedure presents two major challenges.

First, the conditions under which the reactions occur must be rigidly maintained. Temperature, pressure, pH, oxygen content, and flow rate are only a few of the variables that must be kept at very specific levels. With the development of automated and computerized equipment, it is becoming much easier to accurately monitor reaction conditions and thus increase production efficiency

Second, the reactions result in the formation of many unwanted by-products. The presence of contaminating waste material often poses a two-fold problem: how to recover (or separate) the end product in a way that leaves as little residue as possible in the catalytic system (since enzymatic catalysts remain unchanged as they drive reactions, they can be used over and over again); and how to isolate the desired product in pure form. The by-products or end products of fermentation include carbon dioxide, water, alcohol, lactic acid, and other acids. Sometimes these fermentation products create conditions unfavorable to microorganisms to a point where fermentation ceases. For example, fermentation comes to a halt when the percent of alcohol in a solution reaches about 12 percent.

The many potential uses of biotechnology are developed through laboratory procedures that generally produce only small amounts of useful substances. As advances in bioprocess technology, particularly separation and purification techniques, are made, commercial firms will be able to economically produce these substances in large amounts, and thus make them available for use in medical research, food processing, agriculture, pharmaceutical development, waste management, and numerous other fields of science and industry.

Vijaylaxmi Kasotia discusses the various government initiatives which can help India exploit the emerging global opportunities in this sector
Making

the sector attractive for both domestic and foreign investors. Achieving integration of the food processing infrastructure from farm to market. Having a transparent and industry friendly regulatory regime. Putting in place a transparent system of standards based on science.

It is also the time to shift food processing industry from 'supply' to 'demand' driven sector by reducing costs, enhancing quality &safety systems, building markets, creating and promoting efficient supply chain, developing / inducting world class technology and management It would require infrastructure development, food safety regulation, etc.

 We

need a Back up of the research previously done on Bio processing Technology We will have to search for some other potential microbes or the existing microbes should be further modified by genetic engineering Last but not least an excellent team of innovative scientists from different fields like biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology ,chemical , biochemical and genetic engineering

I imagine a future where our biological solutions create the necessary balance between better business, cleaner environment, and better lives. Dr. Swaranjit Singh Senior principle Scientist IMTECH, Chandigarh.