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Cbe 654: Bioreactor Engineering Sem 2 Session 2013/14 Assignment 1: Question

The document provides temperature-time data from sterilizing a 150m3 fermenter containing medium with an initial microbial cell count of 5x105 cells per ml. It asks how long the medium needs to be held at the highest temperature of 121°C to achieve a 1:1000 probability of contamination, minimizing nutrient loss. Additional information given includes the Arrhenius equation used to model microbial inactivation over time at different temperatures, and the activation energy and Arrhenius constant for the microbe B. stearothermophilus.

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39 views3 pages

Cbe 654: Bioreactor Engineering Sem 2 Session 2013/14 Assignment 1: Question

The document provides temperature-time data from sterilizing a 150m3 fermenter containing medium with an initial microbial cell count of 5x105 cells per ml. It asks how long the medium needs to be held at the highest temperature of 121°C to achieve a 1:1000 probability of contamination, minimizing nutrient loss. Additional information given includes the Arrhenius equation used to model microbial inactivation over time at different temperatures, and the activation energy and Arrhenius constant for the microbe B. stearothermophilus.

Uploaded by

Farah Najihah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CBE 654 : BIOREACTOR ENGINEERING SEM 2 SESSION 2013/14

ASSIGNMENT 1 : QUESTION
(SUBMISSION DATELINE 4pm FRIDAY 20/6/2014)
A production-scale fermenter with a liquid volume of 150m3 needs to be sterilized to 1:1000
probability of contamination (or one per 1000 batch will be contaminated).
The medium was found to have a viable microbial cell count of 5x105 cells per ml.
Steam is available at 1210C, and a thermocouple located in the fermenter gives the
temperature-time data for the sterilization process is as in Table 1 below.
How long should the medium be held at the highest temperature so that the desired
probability of sterility is achieved with minimum loss of nutrient quality?
(3 Marks)
Table 1: Temperature-Time Data
TIME (minutes)

TEMPERATURE
25
77
102
119
121
121
106
92
81
71
63
56
49
39
25

0
10
20
30
32
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
150
190
Given additional information
(a) Arrhenius equation is given as:

k A. exp

Ea

RT

where

A
Ea
R
T

is Arrhenius constant
is activation Energy
is Universal Gas Constant
is temperature (K)
1

(b) The activation energy and Arrhenius constant of B. stearothermophilus spores as


follows:
Activation energy = 67.7 K cal. Mol-1 = 284.34 x 103 J. mol-1
Arrhenius constant = 1x1036.2 sec-1
(c) Universal gas constant R = 8.314472 J K-1 mol-1
(d) 0oC = 273.15 K

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