Bio-production

Interest in the transformation of plant origin biomass resources into energy and industrial material is increasing as a fundamental technology for the building of a sustainable society. This course focuses on helping students to gain an understanding of biomass as fermentation feedstock, separation and the purification of target products involving material production by microbial fermentation that have been used extensively in the production of food and medical products through lectures and practical exercises.

Lectures will be given using books and reference material specified in the package. Progress will be presented in seminar style followed by written submission as a report. Experiments will take place according to the procedure specified in the package. Reports will be made once per week and meetings will be called as needed.

A part of the practical training and lectures will take place at the Kyushu Institute of Technology Eco-town R&D Center. Organic acid and alcohol fermentation is prepared as exercise problems; however the theme will be decided upon through private consultation with each student

This course is designed to help students recognize the overall optimization in order to realize industrial production by experiencing production using microorganisms, and the prior and post treatment incidental to handling plant resources.

It is desirable that students have a basic knowledge of chemistry and biology.

The following list shows examples of research projects that can be combined with this course.
"Fuel Cell"
"Bio remediation"
"Monitoring and control of cultures"

Scores will be given on a scale of 1 to 5 for the items listed below. An average score of 3.5 is considered a passing score.

1. (1) Level of understanding of biomasses
   
2. (2) Level of understanding of material production by microorganism
   
3. (3) Level of understanding of separation and purification of fermentation products
   
4. (4) Final presentation and report