Fermentation TechnologyLaajuus (3 ECTS)

Objective

After completiong of the course the student has a clear understanding of the significance of commercial and scientific activities within fermentation technology both now and in the future. The student recognizes the importance of fermentation technology in different processes, knows how it is implemented into practice and how its efficiency can be evaluated. The student is familiar with aseptic practices in equipment design and in their use. The student also recognizes the limiting factors and their practical meaning and is able to evaluate the consequences of the use of different scale-up parameters. The student is able to apply the mathematical equations describing growth, product formation and nutrient consumption.
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After completion of the course the student is able to choose a proper fermentor and process type and prelimarily design a fermentor into a spesific process. The student is able experimentally determine the values of parameters desribing the efficiency of a process and use these to compare processes. The student recognizes aseptic solutions in equipments and is able to apply aseptic principles in laboratory fermentations and calculate sterilization procedures based on various starting conditions. The student is able to perform all practices in laboratory fermentations. The student is able to apply the mathematics of mass and heat transfer, power consumption and scale-up and to evaluate the rationality of the results.

Content

History of fermentation, products, fermentation industry and research in Finland, biorefinery concept, terminology, growth and product formation of production organisms and prerequisites for these, fermentation modes, practical and mathematical basics of chemostat, technical-economical parameters and their applications, heat sterilization procedures, aseptic principles in equipment and process design, fermentor types, mass and heat transfer and oxygen and heat balances, principles of scale-up and scale-down, homogeneity in fermentation fluids, process development, power consumption and its calculations, fermentation geometry, fermentor design, measurement and control in fermentations, practical implementation of laboratory fermentations from preparations to analysis and determinations of oxygen transfer and uptake rates under various practical conditions.
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Examples of processes with more details, technical and commercial data on specific fermentation products and processes, fermentation technology in white and red biotechnology, calculation of F-value in batch heat sterilization,values of parameters describing efficiency in different fermentor types, examples of process development based on metabolic engineering, scale-up/scale-down with more details, aseptic solutions of spesific details in fermentor equipments, more advanced monitoring and control methods and use of computers.

Qualifications

Microbiology, Laboratory course on microbiology