ADAMA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL, CHEMICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
ChE 4201 Fundamentals of Biochemical Engineering Group Assignment
(Maximum Mark 15%)

1. You are going to cultivate yeast, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae , by using a 10m3

fermenter your company owns. You want to find out the amount of ethanol the
fermenter can produce. Therefore, a chemostat study was carried out and the
Monod kinetic parameters for the microorganism grown in the glucose medium at 30
oC, pH= 4.8, were found to be Ks= 0.025 g/L and umax= 0.25h -1 . The ethanol yield (Y p/s

) is 0.44 (g/g) and cell yield (Y X/S ) is 0.019 (g/g). The inlet substrate concentration is 50
g/l.
a. What flowrate will give the maximum total ethanol production in the continuous
fermenter and what is the maximum ethanol production rate?
b. If you want to convert 95% of the incoming substrate, what must be the ethanol
production rate for the continuous fermenter?
c. If you have two 5m 3 fermenters instead of one 10m 3 fermenter, what is your
recommendation for the use of these fermenters to convert 95% of the incoming
substrate? Would you recommend connecting two fermenters in series to improve the
productivity? Why or why not?

2. Monod kinetics are considered in a CSTR with an organism growing with an initial
substrate concentration of 50g/1 and kinetic parameters of Ks=2g/1 and u max=0.5h-1.
(a) What would be the maximum dilution rate for 100% yield of biomass with maximum
rate?
(b) If the same dilution is used, what would be number of CSTRs in series?

3. The Monod rate model is valid for a CSTR bioreactor with maximum specific growt h
rate of 0.5h-1 and Ks= 2g/1. What would be a suitable dilution rate at steady -state
condition, where there is no cell death if initial substrate concentration is 50g/1 and
yield of biomass on substrate is 100%.

4. A microorganism is cultured in a 10 L batch bioreactor, which initially

contained 100 g/L growth substrate (considered to be a "high" concentration)
and 0.2 g/L biomass. You are told by a colleague that the doubling time for
this culture (in exponential phase) is very reproducible, with t d = 1.25 hours.

After 6 total hours in culture, you measure the cell density and substrate
concentration:
t = 6 h: Cx = 1.24 g/L; CS = 73 g/L.
Estimate:
a. The maximum specific growth rate, μmax (h-1).
b. The yield coefficient, YX/S (g biomass/g substrate).
c. The cell density at stationary phase (g/L).
d. The total culture time required to reach stationary phase (h).
e. The apparent lag time, t lag (h).

Submission Date: Wednesday, December 23, 2019