The increasing energy demand and cost of petroleum have spurred the need for alternative sustaina... more The increasing energy demand and cost of petroleum have spurred the need for alternative sustainable feedstocks. In the Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering, a novel cost-competitive wheat-based biorefining strategy for the production of generic fermentation feedstocks has been developed. These could be converted into platform chemicals, biodegradable polymers and biofuels via microbial bioconversion. Wheat is used as raw material and we aim to exploit all wheat components into both value-added end-products ...
The 4 Sections of this book, based on presentations made at the International Conference, Bubbles... more The 4 Sections of this book, based on presentations made at the International Conference, Bubbles in Food, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK, in June 1998, cover the following: bubble entrainment and generation; bubble growth and foam stability; bubble measurement and control; and bubbles for sensory and marketing advantage (cereal-based foods, milk products and beverages).
Fungal cell immobilisation. C Webb Mycologist 3:44, 167-170, 1989. K 03069 Fungi; A 01117 Fungi; ... more Fungal cell immobilisation. C Webb Mycologist 3:44, 167-170, 1989. K 03069 Fungi; A 01117 Fungi; W 30210 Whole cell and organelle; A 01001 General.
Abstract Two important considerations in the design of an aerobic particulate immobilized cell bi... more Abstract Two important considerations in the design of an aerobic particulate immobilized cell bioreactor are the provision of sufficient oxygen to maintain the desired metabolism of the immobilized organism, and the biomass holdup (which is proportional to the number of immobilized cell particles in the reactor). The Circulating Bed Reactor, a reactor developed for use with those forms of immobilization that result in particles of essentially neutral buoyancy, operates with an expanded bed of circulating particles. The particle number ...
Abstract Depending on which definition is chosen, biotechnology can be considered to be one of th... more Abstract Depending on which definition is chosen, biotechnology can be considered to be one of the oldest industrial technologies or one of the newest. For the chemical engineer, however, the major distinction is in terms of the scale of operation. The majority of products of the new biotechnology are extremely high value, low volume biochemicals. Thus recovery (separation) processes for such products may be relatively costly and energy intensive, because of the small quantities involved, but at the same time must be highly efficient in ...
Clark/Introduction to Chemicals from Biomass, 2008
Oil and natural gas are currently the predominant raw materials used for the production of around... more Oil and natural gas are currently the predominant raw materials used for the production of around 95% of worldwide chemical production. Figure 4.1 presents predominant production routes of various chemicals that are derived from the primary building blocks produced from crude oil (ethylene, propylene, butadiene, butenes, benzene, toluene, xylenes and methane). One of the major characteristics of these primary building blocks is that they are hydrocarbons, containing no oxygen or nitrogen in their molecular formula. These platform ...
ABSTRACT Food waste is a global problem. Each year food worth billions of dollars is wasted by th... more ABSTRACT Food waste is a global problem. Each year food worth billions of dollars is wasted by the developed economies of the world. When food is wasted, the problem does not end at that point. More than 95% of the food waste ends at landfill sites, where converted into methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses by anaerobic digestion. The impact of food waste to climate change is catastrophic. Food waste problem tends to increase in next 25 years due to economic and population growth mainly in Asian countries. In addition, when food wastes buried at landfill sites their energy content is lost. Although food waste is a huge problem, its global size and extent has recently become a hot topic in the academic community. This paper summarises the size of the global food waste problem together with the estimation of the amount of energy lost when food wastes dumped at landfill sites. Calculations in this study also revealed that energy lost at landfill sites equals to 43% of the delivered energy used for the preparation of foods in the US, 37% of the hydroelectric power generation of Japan, and more than 100% of the current annual renewable energy demand of UK industries.
Restructuring the current fermentation and recovery practices employed for the production of poly... more Restructuring the current fermentation and recovery practices employed for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates is essential for the commercialisation of environmentally benign and cost competitive biodegradable plastics. This study presents the potential of a wheat-based biorefinery for the production of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate)(PHB). Fed-batch bioconversions using Wautersia eutropha growing on wheat-derived media led to the production of 162.8 g/l PHB. A high PHB to total dry weight (TDW) yield of 93%(w/w) was achieved due to ...
ABSTRACT Glycerol is produced in large quantities by the growing biodiesel industry (approximatel... more ABSTRACT Glycerol is produced in large quantities by the growing biodiesel industry (approximately 100kg per ton of biodiesel). Hence there is a growing demand for processes converting glycerol into useful valuable chemicals. Here we consider the conversion of glycerol into the commodity chemical succinic acid (SA) throughfermentation with the organism Actinobacillus succinogenes. Metabolic control analysis is applied, using knowledge of the structure, the fluxes generated through flux balance analysis and elasticities, which are modelled using random sampling to account for their uncertainty. The results of this analysis give ranges of control coefficients, summarised with a novel parameter we have called the control bias. We have found that the step having the greatest positive effect on SA production is the glycerol uptake and that the enzymes from malate to SA, and from pyruvate to malate are important steps with positive control. A less obvious step identified is the uptake of CO2. Steps having negative control are the ones leading to byproducts such as formic acid.
Abstract This chapter reviews the history of flour milling in terms of its origins and its develo... more Abstract This chapter reviews the history of flour milling in terms of its origins and its development to the modern roller milling process. Flour milling and its characteristics in relation to flour quality, as well as the technologies that are used in flour mills and the factors that influence flour quality at the milling stage are discussed.
World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, 1993
Substantial losses occur in the fermentation industry each year due to variability in yields and ... more Substantial losses occur in the fermentation industry each year due to variability in yields and productivity. As the first stage in the process, inoculum consistency, in terms of size and quality, is clearly important. Yet, despite this, most inoculum development processes involve at least one highly variable transfer step, usually by wire loop, from a culture grown on a solid (agar) substrate. It is likely, then, that at least some of the variability in the production process can be attributed to a poorly controlled initial inoculation process.Experiments to determine the inherent variability of the conventional loop transfer technique showed a 12-fold variation in inoculum size. Although this can be improved by adopting a more rigid protocol, consistency is still poor. A simple alternative system, based on liquid transfers, leads to substantial improvements in the reproducibility of inoculum size and quality.
The increasing energy demand and cost of petroleum have spurred the need for alternative sustaina... more The increasing energy demand and cost of petroleum have spurred the need for alternative sustainable feedstocks. In the Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering, a novel cost-competitive wheat-based biorefining strategy for the production of generic fermentation feedstocks has been developed. These could be converted into platform chemicals, biodegradable polymers and biofuels via microbial bioconversion. Wheat is used as raw material and we aim to exploit all wheat components into both value-added end-products ...
The 4 Sections of this book, based on presentations made at the International Conference, Bubbles... more The 4 Sections of this book, based on presentations made at the International Conference, Bubbles in Food, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK, in June 1998, cover the following: bubble entrainment and generation; bubble growth and foam stability; bubble measurement and control; and bubbles for sensory and marketing advantage (cereal-based foods, milk products and beverages).
Fungal cell immobilisation. C Webb Mycologist 3:44, 167-170, 1989. K 03069 Fungi; A 01117 Fungi; ... more Fungal cell immobilisation. C Webb Mycologist 3:44, 167-170, 1989. K 03069 Fungi; A 01117 Fungi; W 30210 Whole cell and organelle; A 01001 General.
Abstract Two important considerations in the design of an aerobic particulate immobilized cell bi... more Abstract Two important considerations in the design of an aerobic particulate immobilized cell bioreactor are the provision of sufficient oxygen to maintain the desired metabolism of the immobilized organism, and the biomass holdup (which is proportional to the number of immobilized cell particles in the reactor). The Circulating Bed Reactor, a reactor developed for use with those forms of immobilization that result in particles of essentially neutral buoyancy, operates with an expanded bed of circulating particles. The particle number ...
Abstract Depending on which definition is chosen, biotechnology can be considered to be one of th... more Abstract Depending on which definition is chosen, biotechnology can be considered to be one of the oldest industrial technologies or one of the newest. For the chemical engineer, however, the major distinction is in terms of the scale of operation. The majority of products of the new biotechnology are extremely high value, low volume biochemicals. Thus recovery (separation) processes for such products may be relatively costly and energy intensive, because of the small quantities involved, but at the same time must be highly efficient in ...
Clark/Introduction to Chemicals from Biomass, 2008
Oil and natural gas are currently the predominant raw materials used for the production of around... more Oil and natural gas are currently the predominant raw materials used for the production of around 95% of worldwide chemical production. Figure 4.1 presents predominant production routes of various chemicals that are derived from the primary building blocks produced from crude oil (ethylene, propylene, butadiene, butenes, benzene, toluene, xylenes and methane). One of the major characteristics of these primary building blocks is that they are hydrocarbons, containing no oxygen or nitrogen in their molecular formula. These platform ...
ABSTRACT Food waste is a global problem. Each year food worth billions of dollars is wasted by th... more ABSTRACT Food waste is a global problem. Each year food worth billions of dollars is wasted by the developed economies of the world. When food is wasted, the problem does not end at that point. More than 95% of the food waste ends at landfill sites, where converted into methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses by anaerobic digestion. The impact of food waste to climate change is catastrophic. Food waste problem tends to increase in next 25 years due to economic and population growth mainly in Asian countries. In addition, when food wastes buried at landfill sites their energy content is lost. Although food waste is a huge problem, its global size and extent has recently become a hot topic in the academic community. This paper summarises the size of the global food waste problem together with the estimation of the amount of energy lost when food wastes dumped at landfill sites. Calculations in this study also revealed that energy lost at landfill sites equals to 43% of the delivered energy used for the preparation of foods in the US, 37% of the hydroelectric power generation of Japan, and more than 100% of the current annual renewable energy demand of UK industries.
Restructuring the current fermentation and recovery practices employed for the production of poly... more Restructuring the current fermentation and recovery practices employed for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates is essential for the commercialisation of environmentally benign and cost competitive biodegradable plastics. This study presents the potential of a wheat-based biorefinery for the production of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate)(PHB). Fed-batch bioconversions using Wautersia eutropha growing on wheat-derived media led to the production of 162.8 g/l PHB. A high PHB to total dry weight (TDW) yield of 93%(w/w) was achieved due to ...
ABSTRACT Glycerol is produced in large quantities by the growing biodiesel industry (approximatel... more ABSTRACT Glycerol is produced in large quantities by the growing biodiesel industry (approximately 100kg per ton of biodiesel). Hence there is a growing demand for processes converting glycerol into useful valuable chemicals. Here we consider the conversion of glycerol into the commodity chemical succinic acid (SA) throughfermentation with the organism Actinobacillus succinogenes. Metabolic control analysis is applied, using knowledge of the structure, the fluxes generated through flux balance analysis and elasticities, which are modelled using random sampling to account for their uncertainty. The results of this analysis give ranges of control coefficients, summarised with a novel parameter we have called the control bias. We have found that the step having the greatest positive effect on SA production is the glycerol uptake and that the enzymes from malate to SA, and from pyruvate to malate are important steps with positive control. A less obvious step identified is the uptake of CO2. Steps having negative control are the ones leading to byproducts such as formic acid.
Abstract This chapter reviews the history of flour milling in terms of its origins and its develo... more Abstract This chapter reviews the history of flour milling in terms of its origins and its development to the modern roller milling process. Flour milling and its characteristics in relation to flour quality, as well as the technologies that are used in flour mills and the factors that influence flour quality at the milling stage are discussed.
World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, 1993
Substantial losses occur in the fermentation industry each year due to variability in yields and ... more Substantial losses occur in the fermentation industry each year due to variability in yields and productivity. As the first stage in the process, inoculum consistency, in terms of size and quality, is clearly important. Yet, despite this, most inoculum development processes involve at least one highly variable transfer step, usually by wire loop, from a culture grown on a solid (agar) substrate. It is likely, then, that at least some of the variability in the production process can be attributed to a poorly controlled initial inoculation process.Experiments to determine the inherent variability of the conventional loop transfer technique showed a 12-fold variation in inoculum size. Although this can be improved by adopting a more rigid protocol, consistency is still poor. A simple alternative system, based on liquid transfers, leads to substantial improvements in the reproducibility of inoculum size and quality.
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Papers by Colin Webb