Dr. Ghosh has presented a novel technique for the con­ version of Municipal Waste (MSW) to methane rich gas. Prior work has either permitted fermentation to proceed naturally (landfill gas extraction) or used conventional stirred reactors (DOE Ref COM facility). Proposed is to recycle leachate through a mass of solid waste to achieve volatile acids and then to convert the acids to methane in a ...

We describe a strain of Shigella dysenteriae serotype 7 which had novel biochemical and genetic characters. Unlike other S. dysenteriae, it produced gas, fermented mannitol, was a late-lactose fermenter and harboured the set 1A and set 1B genes. The significance of such atypical strains is that they are difficult to identify. If such strains are missed, they could prove to be a serious public h...

Background The introduction of animal origin free (AOF) media has significantly reduced the incidence of adventitious virus contamination in biological production systems. Nevertheless, contamination by the parvovirus Mouse Minute Virus (MMV) remains a continuing challenge. Although infrequent, infection of a fermenter can be catastrophic for a manufacturer, and can also have a potential impact...

A patient developed dysgonic fermenter-2 (DF-2) septicaemia and meningitis after having been bitten by a dog. The pathogenic organism was isolated from the oral cavity of the dog, which, it is believed, is the first time that this has been done. The growth characteristics of the organism and the immunological response of the patient were studied. The isolation of the infecting agent from the do...

One of the major obstacles of Bt production as a biopesticide is its expensive bioprocess and fermentation. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to optimize growth condition and develop a low-cost bioprocess for mass production of a native coleopteraneffective Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strain (KH4) based on agricultural wastes, at incubator and batch fermenter level. Preliminary ...

In this study, Glucoamylase production by Aspergillus niger was investigated under solid state fermentation using low cost by-products of agricultural processes as substrate. Highest enzyme production was observed when a combination of wheat bran (WB) and corn flour (CF) was used as compared to WB+ rice bran, WB+ rice flour and WB alone. Several compositions of corn flours were experimented. Th...

The rising demand for bioethanol, the most common alternative to petroleum-derived fuel used worldwide, has encouraged a feedstock shift to non-food crops to reduce the competition for resources between food and energy production. Sweet sorghum has become one of the most promising non-food energy crops because of its high output and strong adaptive ability. However, the means by which sweet sor...

Pseudoalterin is the most abundant protease secreted by the marine sedimental bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. CF6-2 and is a novel cold-adapted metalloprotease of the M23 family. Proteases of the M23 family have high activity towards peptidoglycan and elastin, suggesting their promising biomedical and biotechnological potentials. To lower the fermentive cost and improve the pseudoalterin produc...