Objectives and competences
Microbial bioprocesses play a pivotal role in various biotechnological applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to environmental remediation. In this course students will learn fundamental principles and advanced techniques involved in in microbial bioprocess engineering, including microbial prospection, bioreactor technology and strategies for efficient bioproduction. The students will gain competences on this vast area through different examples that will cover chemical, new-material industries and environment. Emphasis will be given to new or more efficient industrial processes involving microorganisms yielding less expensive products or substances not available using classical chemical methods, with a focus on their contribution to sustainability and on the current trends and advancements in microbial bioprocess technology. During the course the students will also develop research capabilities.
Teaching Methodologies
The UC is structured in lectures, tutorials and laboratory practices. In the tutorials microbial bioprocesses will be explored with the students. After an initial introduction to the basic concepts of microbial bioprocessing and a roadmap of the course, the following sessions will follow a strategy of flipped classroom where the students will complete readings at home in each subject and will work on that with the teacher and colleagues in the following section – a specific topic will be assigned to different groups of students, in rotation. For the laboratory practices students are integrated into ongoing research projects at CBQF, being responsible for a research component agreed with the teacher. At the end of the unit the students produce a report and make an oral presentation on their projects. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to attend lectures/seminars given by researchers/professionals at CBQF in areas related to the curricular unit.
Syllabus
- Bioprocesses with living cells or their components
Microbial Growth Kinetics
Metabolic Pathways in Microorganisms - Cells production and bioconversions
- Microbial production of enzymes for different applications
Microorganisms for enzyme production
Enzyme Production Processes
Downstream processing for enzyme extraction and purification - Microbial Bioprocesses for bulk chemicals
Bulk chemicals via microbial bioprocesses (e.g., organic acids, amino acids, etc)
Biochemical pathways in production of selected chemicals
Successful microbial bioprocesses for specific chemicals - Microbial Bioprocesses in Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery
Processes: aerobic vs anaerobic
Biorefinery concept in wastewater treatment
Microbial biomass as source of novel products - Microbial Bioprocesses for Agriculture and Forestry
Development of microbial bioinoculants - Microbial Bioprocesses in Soil Remediation
Microorganism for pollutant degradation
Microbial biomass as soil probiotics
