Earticle

Among various pretreatment processes for bioethanol production, extrusion pretreatment, one of cheap and simple process was investigated to efficiently produce fermentable sugars from micro alga, Chlorella sp. The biomass was pretreated in a single screw extruder at five different barrel temperatures of 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65℃, respectively with five screw rotation speed of 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 rpm. The pretreated biomass was reacted with two different hydrolyzing enzymes of cellulase and amyloglucosidase since the biomass contained different types of carbohydrates, compared to cellulose of agricultural by-products such wheat and corn stovers, etc. In general, higher glucose conversion yield was obtained as 13.24 (%, w/w) at 55℃ of barrel temperature and 100 rpm of screw speed conditions. In treating 5 FPU/glucan of cellulase and 150 Unit/mL of amyloglucosidase, ca. 64% of cellulose and 40% of polysaccharides in the micro alga were converted into glucose, which was higher yields than those from other reported data without applying an extrusion process. 84% of the fermentable sugars obtained from the hyrolyzing processes were fermented into ethanol in considering 50% of theoretical maximum fermentation yield of the yeast. These results implied that high speed extrusion could be suitable as a pretreatment process for the production of bioethanol from Chlorella sp.

This study was accomplished using packed bed column reactors that contain nonsurface-modified polypropylene media and surface-modified media from hydrophobic surface property into hydrophilic property by ion beam irradiation. The objectives of this research was investigated the characteristics of organic compounds removal and microbe attachment from sewage of school cafeteria in these reactors. In 736.8 mg/L of the average inflow CODCr concentration the reactors with and without surface modification showed 81.8% and 70.3% of average CODCr removal efficiencies, respectively, which proves the CODCr removal efficiency of surface-modified media reactor is higher than that of nonsurface-modified media reactor. After 90 days, there were maximum differences between modified system and nonmodified system. In that time the maximum removal efficiency of CODCr was 96.5% in modified system and was 85.2% in non-modified system that showed removal efficiency of surface-modified media system is 11.3% higher than that of nonsurface-modified media system. The average removal efficiency of SS was 80.4% for the surface modified system and 61.6% for the non-modified system under same condition. Also, the reactor of surface-modified media has advantage on microbe attachment and biofilm formation.

Lactic acid is an important product arising from the anaerobic fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). It is used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, chemical, and food industries as well as for biodegradable polymer and green solvent production. The poly lactic acid (PLA) is an important material for bio-plastic manufacturing process. For PLA production by new LAB, we screened LAB isolates from shellfish. A total of 28 LAB were isolated from various shellfishes. They were all Gram positive, oxidase and catalase negative. Based on API 50CHL kit, 7 strains among the 28 isolates were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum, 6 strains as Lactobacillus delbrueckii, 5 strains as Leuconostoc mesenteroides, 3 strains as Lactobacillus brevis, 2 strains as Lactococcus lactis, 1 strain as Lactobacillus salivarius, 1 strain as Lactobacillus paracasei, 1 strain as Lactobacillus pentosus, 1 strain as Lactobacillus fermentum and 1 strain as Pediococcus pentosaceu. Also, we examined the amount of total lactic acid produced by these new strains by HPLC analysis with Chiralpak MA column. One strain E-3 from Mytilus edulis was indentified as Lactobacillus plantarum and found to produce 20.0 g/L of D-form lactic acid from 20 g/L of dextrose. Further studies are underway to increase the D-lactic acid production by E-3.

When iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation method using aqueous ammonia as reducing agent, the synthesized particles were aggregated and thus precipitation occurred. Using Magnolia kobus leaf extract as reducing agent, spherical nanoparticles of 50~200 nm were synthesized with low yield. By using both Magnolia kobus leaf extract and aqueous ammonia as reducing and stabilizing agents, smaller nanoparticles of 40~120 nm could be synthesized with various shapes. The synthesized magnetic nanoparticles were characterized with field emission transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). TEM and SEM images showed that the magnetic nanoparticles are a mixture of triangles, tetragons, rods and spherical structures.

The purpose of this work was to examine the antibacterial activity derived from a lactic acid bacterium isolated from korean rice wine, called makgeolli. Various physiological and biochemical properties of this strain were characterized. Both the BIOLOG system and phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA sequencing were utilized for identification, and the strain was designated as Lactobacillus casei HK-9, and registered in GenBank as [JQ951606]. Growth rate, production of organic acids (e.g., lactic acid and acetic acid), and pH changes during growth were monitored. The maximum concentrations of lactic acid and acetic acid were approximately 576 mM and 199 mM, respectively, and pH was changed from 7.00 to 3.74 after 72 h of incubation. HPLC was used to confirm the production of lactic acid and acetic acid. Significant antimicrobial activity of the concentrated supernatant was demonstrated against various food-poison causing bacteria (e.g., Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis). Ethanol tolerance of L. casei HK-9 showed up to 12% of ethanol within the culture.

A convenient liquid chromatographic enantiomer separation of several α-amino acid esters as benzophenone Schiff base derivatives on covalently immobilized chiral stationary phases (CSPs) derived from polysaccharide derivatives was developed. The benzophenone imine derivatives of α-amino acid esters were readily prepared by stirring benzophenone imine and the α-amino acid ester hydrochloride salts in 2-propanol. The chromatographic conditions used on all CSPs were 0.5% or 5% 2-propanol/hexane (V/V) as the mobile phases at 1 mL/min of flow rate and UV 254 nm detection. The performance of Chiralpak IC among all CSPs was superior to that of the other CSPs for resolution of benzophenone imine derivatives of α-amino acid esters. It is expected that the developed analytical method will be useful for enantiomer resolution of other α-amino acid esters as benzophenone Schiff base derivatives.

In this study, microalgae Arthrospira platensis (A. platensis) mutants induced by ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) and further selection for resistance of cerulenin, a potent inhibitor of fatty acid synthase, were characterized. The mutants selected by 2 μM, 5 μM and 10 μM of cerulenin were designated EC2, EC5 and EC10, respectively. Under normal growth conditions, the mutants and parental strain exhibited similar growth pattern. The mutants of A. platensis showed enhanced lipid accumulation and phycobiliproteins (phycoerythrin, phycocyanin). The lipid content of mutants EC2 and EC5 was about 4.4 and 4.8-fold higher than wild type. The phycoerythrin and phycocyanin content of mutants EC2 and EC5 was increased about 1.5 and 6.9-fold and 1.4 and 3.8-fold, respectively, compared to the wild type. The chlorophyll and carotenoid content of mutants was slightly increased. The high lipid and pigment contents exhibited by A. platensis mutants would make an excellent candidate for the production of commercially interesting biologically active compounds.

Inonotus obliquus mushroom, which is a fungus belonging to Hymenochaetaceae family, is known to grow on birth trees in colder northern climates and to be a fungal parasite that draws nutrients out of living trees rather than from the ground. For the separation of protein-bound polysaccharide (PBP) from the culture broth and mycelium of Inonotus obliquus, three well known extraction methods namely hot water, ultrasound and microwave were used. The best extraction conditions to separate the PBP (64.94 mg/g) from mycelium by microwave were found to be for 1 hour and 150℃. The possibility for concentration of extracted PBP solution by using membrane was also studied. The extracted PBP solution was concentrated effectively by using an ultrafiltration membrane and the molecular weight cut off (MWCO) is 30 KDa. It was observed that a concentration by the ultrafiltration membrane is essential not only for the development of clean separation technology but also for enhanced production of PBP. As a result, we have shown that PBP in the final concentrated solution showed approximately 10 times higher than that in the crude solution by application of the developed separation systems. The separation yield of PBP was about 89.79% by gel filtration of purification steps and the purified product was confirmed to be PBP by using FT-IR.

Various human host cell lines, which are more effective than the other original human cell lines, have been developed and used. Highly efficient human cell line can be obtained from the fusion between human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) and human Burkitt’s lymphoma cells (Namalwa). Fused cell line has the advantages of both cell lines such as the high transfection efficacy of HEK293 cells and the constitutive expression of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome which is related with high expression of target protein and anti-apoptotic growth of Namalwa cells. In this study, characterization of two original cell lines was performed by using design of experiment (DOE) considering cell maintenance, media development, optimization of culture condition, and scale-up. The formation of aggregates was apparent with high glutamine concentration at more than 6 mM. Supplementation of hydrolysates showed positive effects on the growth performances of HEK293 cells. On the contrary, Namalwa cells showed negative results. It was confirmed that Namalwa cells were more sensitive to lower temperature at 35℃ and hyperosmotic condition over 260 mOsm/kg. In addition, both cell lines showed limited growth in 3-L bioreactor due to shear stress.

This study was carried out to assess the effect of radiation on the changes of Hizikia fusiformis cooking juice ethanol extract and to compare the effect of gamma ray and electron beam. On the applying radiation, the dark color of cooking juice became changed with higher brightness and lower redness and yellowness. But, there was no difference between gamma ray radiation and electron beam radiation. 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl radical scavenging activity and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of cooking juice were shown to be increased by radiation independent on the radiation source types. The reason for the increased biological activities was caused by higher content of total phenolic compounds. The results could be applied to investigate the effect of radiation source on the color and antioxidant activity of biomaterials, and it was thought that irradiation could be an promising method for enhancing the biological activity of biomaterials.