Class Discussion (2021)

 Dear Students,

I encourage you to use this blog platform to showcase your ability to find relevant answers to questions raised during class discussion, through effective literature survey and some application of mind.

Class Discussion Topics (2019-20)

Class Discussion Topics (2018-19): Even Semester

Dear Students,
I encourage you to use this blog platform to showcase your ability to find relevant answers to questions raised during class discussion, through effective literature survey and some application of mind.

Class Discussion Topics (2018-19)

Questions from class discussion:

Dear Students,
This post is being created as a platform for questions which arise during class discussion. You can post your answers and relevant information here.
Just type the question, followed by your answer/ comments, and other can join.

Let us discuss:
How Fermentation Microbiology help us shift from a hydrocarbon economy to a bio-based green economy?

Interesting questions for critical thinking:

• How the organic acid producers accumulate large amount of the acid in medium against the concentration gradient?
• How the problem of gradient formation (with respect to pH, temp, nutrient/product concentration, etc.) inside a fermentor vessel is linked to stress-regulation of the process organism?

Topics of emerging importance:

• Viable but non-cultivable (VNC) microbes
• Interspecies and intraspecies communication among microorganisms using physical signals

Topics of emerging importance:

• Biorefinery concept
• Alcohol production from lignocellulosic waste
• Glycerol based fermentations
• Lactic acid as a precursor for chemical industry

Industrial Microbiology and Fermentation textbooks are not published that frequently as those of other branches of Microbiology. This is for a variety of reasons including industrial secrecy on process development. In absence of latest reference books, it becomes sometimes difficult to find relevant literature in this field. Here what a student/teacher can do is to look more for recent research and/or review papers in the field of Bioprocess Engineering, and not only for books. Review articles of recent origin will also bring out the recent developments and challenges in an exciting way, besides giving idea on processes and products of future e.g. use of small organic compounds as building blocks for a variety of polymers.

Preface

Since the first world war, microorganisms have been exploited industrially, on a large scale. They have been used for production of antibiotics, enzymes, vitamins, etc. In future, organic acids are likely to emerge as among the most important fermentation products, particularly as building blocks for polymer products.

Besides production of novel microbial products, process intensification and scale-up are among the most exciting and challenging areas in this field. This paper will make the students aware of the applied and biotechnological aspects of commercially important microorganisms. Further the research on extremophiles is likely to open new doors in this branch of biology.