BITS PILANI, K. K.

BIRLA GOA CAMPUS, FIRST SEMESTER 2017 – 2018

COMPREHENSIVE EXAM (CLOSED BOOK)

BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING (CHE F421)

DATE: 14/05/2017 TIME: 9:00 pm – 12:00 pm MAX. MARKS: 40

Answer all the questions

1) Ethanol is to be used as a substrate for single-cell protein production in a chemostat. The available
equipment can achieve an oxygen transfer rate of 10 g O2/l. h. Assume kinetics of cell growth on
ethanol is of Monod type, with µm = 0.5 h–1, Ks = 30 mg/l, YX/S = 0.5 g cells/g EtOH, and YO2/S = 2 g
O2/g EtOH. We wish to operate the chemostat with an ethanol concentration in the feed of 22 g/L. We
also wish to maximize the biomass productivity and minimize the loss of unused ethanol in the effluent.
Determine the required dilution rate and whether sufficient oxygen can be provided. (3 marks).
2) Immobilized lactase packed in a multistage fluidized bed is being proposed for the continuous
production of glucose and galactose. Draw the operation schemes for multistage fluidized bed reactor to
achieve a uniform conversion rate? What are the advantages of fluidized bed reactor over packed bed
reactor for enzymatic reactions? (3 marks)
3) Discuss about various factors that dictate the choice of biomass cultivation method? (1 mark). Show
that biomass productivity from continuous culture is higher than that of batch productivity? (3 marks).
Compare the biomass productivities obtained from continuous and batch cultivation methods when final
biomass concentration is 30 times higher than initial biomass concentration, down time between the
batches is 10 h and maximum specific growth rate of 0.5 h-1 (1 mark)
4) An industrial waste-water stream is fed to a stirred-tank reactor continuously and the cells are recycled
back to the reactor from the bottom of the sedimentation tank placed after the reactor.
The following are given for the system:
F = 100 l/h; S0 = 5000 mg/l; µm = 0.25 h-1; Ks = 200 mg/l; α = 0.6; C = 2; YX/S = 0.4. The effluent
concentration is desired to be 100 mg/l.
a. Determine the required reactor volume. (2 marks)
b. Determine the cell concentration in the reactor and in the recycle stream. (2 marks)
c. If the residence time is 2 h in the sedimentation tank, determine the volume of the sedimentation tank
and cell concentration in the effluent of the sedimentation tank. (2 marks)
5) Citric acid is manufactured using submerged culture of Aspergillus niger in a batch reactor operated at
30 °C. Over a period of 2 days, 2500 kg glucose and 860 kg oxygen are consumed to produce 1500 kg
citric acid, 500 kg biomass, and other products. Ammonia is used as the nitrogen source. Power input
to the system by mechanical agitation of the broth is about 15 kW; approximately 100 kg of water is
evaporated over the culture period. Estimate the cooling requirements. (Δhv water at 30°C is 580.6 k cal
kg-1) (3 marks)
6) An enzyme is used to convert substrate to a commercial product in a 1600 L batch reactor. Vmax for the
enzyme is 0.9 g 1-1 h-l; Km is 1.5 g 1-1. Substrate concentration at the start of the reaction is 3 g l-1;
according to the stoichiometry of the reaction, conversion of 1 g substrate produces 1.2 g product. The
cost of operating the reactor including labour, maintenance, energy and other utilities is estimated at
$4800 per day. The cost of recovering the product depends on the extent of substrate conversion and the
resulting concentration of product in the final reaction mixture. For conversions
between 70% and 100%, the cost of downstream processing can be approximated using the equation:
C = 155 - 0.33X
where C is cost in $ per kg product treated and X is the percentage substrate conversion. The market
price for the product is $750 kg-1. Currently, the enzyme reactor is operated with 75% substrate
conversion; however it is proposed to increase this to 90%. Estimate the effect this will have on the
economics of the process. (5 marks)
7) A cylindrical stirred bioreactor of diameter and liquid height 2 m is equipped with a Rushton turbine of
diameter one-third the tank diameter. The bioreactor contains Newtonian culture broth with the same
density as water and viscosity 4 cP.
(a) If the specific power consumption must not exceed 1.5 kW m-3, determine the maximum allowable
stirrer speed. (1 mark)
(b) What is the mixing time at the stirrer speed determined in (a)? (1 mark)
(c) The tank is now aerated. In the presence of gas bubbles, the approximate relationship between the
ungassed turbulent power number (NP)’0 and the gassed turbulent power number (NP)’g is
(NP)’g = 0.5 (NP)’0 . What maximum stirrer speed is now possible in the sparged reactor? (1 mark)
8) An autoclave malfunctions, and the temperature reaches only 119.5°C. The sterilization time at the
maximum temperature was 20 min. The jar contains 10 l of complex medium that has 105 spores/l. At
121°C, kd = 1.0 min-1 and E0d = 90 kcal/g-mol. What is the probability that the medium was sterile? (3
marks)
9) The growth of baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on glucose may be simply described by the
following equation:
C6H12O6 + 3 O2 + 0.48 NH3  0.48 C6H10NO3 (yeast) + 4.32 H2O + 3.12 CO2
In a batch reactor of volume 105 L, the final desired yeast concentration is 50 g/L. Using the above
reaction stoichiometry:
(a) Determine the concentration and total amount of glucose and (NH4)2SO4 in the medium. (1 mark)
(b) Determine the yield factors YX/S (biomass/glucose) and YX/O2 (biomass/ oxygen). (1 mark)
(c) Determine the total amount of oxygen required. (1 mark)
(d) If the rate of growth at exponential phase is rX = 0.7 g/(L.h), determine the rate of oxygen
consumption, g O2/(L.h). (1 mark)
(e) Calculate the heat-removal requirements for the reactor. (1 mark)
10) The lowest yield of ATP /is in (0.5 mark)
A. fermentation
B. aerobic respiration
C. anaerobic respiration
D. same in (a), (b) and (c).
11) Answer true or false to the following statements (Answers with proper justification required)
a. In the design of the sterilizer, the deterministic and probabilistic approaches would yield similar
results as long as Nf >>1 (0.5 mark)
b. Dynamic method of kLa determinations is widely used because it can be used while a bioreactor
is in use and with little disturbance to its performance (0.5 mark)
c. In a batch culture, the specific oxygen consumption rate does not vary with time (0.5 mark)
d. While sparging air into the bubble column reactor at a rate above the transition gas flow rate Q T
bubbles size increases but bubbles are formed at constant frequency (0.5 mark)
e. In the case of un-gassed Newtonian fluids, under laminar regime, power requirement is directly
proportional to viscosity but independent of density (0.5 mark)
f. For product formation not directly coupled to energy metabolism, observed yield of product,
Y’P/X can be improved by increasing the mP (0.5 mark)
g. In an airlift reactor, equilibrium bubble size is independent of sparger design (0.5 mark)