DEVELOPMENT OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY COURSE AT UNIVERSITY MALAYA (1980 – 2006)

The article discusses the development of the fermentation technology course at the Department of Genetics and Cellular Biology, University Malaya from 1980 till 2006. It highlights the various problems in the development of the course from the development of syllabus, teaching and carrying out the laboratory practicals and the relevance of the course to the industrial demands

1. INTRODUCTION

Fermentation technology has always been one of the most important components in the study leading to the degrees of microbiology, biotechnology and bioprocess engineering. Most of our local universities offer the subject as a compulsory requirement for the degrees in biotechnology and microbiology. The fermentation technology course is considered a specialization subject and is usually offered during the advanced undergraduate years of the degree programme.

University Malaya is one of the earliest universities in Malaysia to offer this course to the students majoring in microbiology in 1980. This was due to the foresight of Prof Ho Coy Choke, the Foundation Professor in Microbiology who has the wisdom to foresee the importance of this subject in the coming years

The Fermentation Technology course in the University Malaya has evolved over 25 years of teaching and development from1980 till 2006. During that period the fermentation technology course has undergone many changes in response to the educational and industrial needs of the nation.

It is hoped that this article will give valuable insights to Universities which are planning to offer the subject and to provide direction for its development in the future





2 HISTORY OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY IN UNIVERSITY MALAYA

The history of fermentation technology in University Malaya can be divided into two phases of development:

1 Period 1979 to 1995
2 Period 1995 to 2006

PERIOD 1979 to 1995

The initial period of the development of fermentation technology was the period of establishment of the course when it was initiated from zero beginning. It was a period of searching the direction for the development of the course and passes through many ups and downs in establishing the course.

In beginning the teaching of the course was jointly carried out by chemical engineering lecturers and genetic lecturers. This arrangement was proposed in the belief that the fermentation technology subject is the synergy between chemical engineering and microbiology components.

However, within a few years it was observed that such arrangement do not really work and it appears as if there are two separate courses were operating in independently rather than a single unified course in fermentation technology. There were poor communications between the microbiology and the chemical engineering departments to improve or strengthen the course

The weaknesses of inter departmental teaching of the subject could be seen in the following:

1 Over lapping of course content between microbiology and
engineering component
2 The engineering practicals were designed to suit to
chemical engineers and not microbiology students.
3 The practicals and lectures too mathematical and not
required by microbiologist and not directly relevant to
fermentation technology
4 The scope of the practicals are not in the maintenance and
operation of fermentors
5 The microbiology component was more biochemistry or
metabolism of biochemical pathways which are already
established in other components of the microbiology
course

In principle a proper fermentation technology course should be run in substance similar to the book by Stanbury and Whitaker (1989) and should involve the utilization of the fermentor. However during this early period of teaching fermentation technology there was little or no use of the fermentor for the practicals. This is possibly attributed to the lack of fermentors or these capital equipments are very costly to acquire. Even if fermentor was used, it is more for demonstration purpose with no hands on experience allowed for the students.

The course in fermentation technology was very microbiological in approach. Fermentation practicals were usually carried out using conical flasks and Petri dishes.

The practicals carried out in the chemical engineering department are more similar to A Level physics experiments. The practicals contributed to the fermentation technology course were more suited to chemical engineering majors.

The fermentation technology practicals carried out in the first phase if fermentation technology are as shown:

LIST OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY PRACTICALS (1980-1995):
Anatomy of fermentor*,
Yeast fermentation*
Isolation and screening of microbes for microbial products*.
Growth curve studies*
Viscosity studies**
Reynolds numbers**
Partition coefficient**

Note:
* Contributed by Microbiology
** Contributed by Chemical engineering


REASONS FOR WEAKNESS OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY

The main reasons for the weakness of the fermentation technology course were attributed to:
1 There were no experienced lecturers who were properly trained or specialized in the teaching of fermentation technology course
2 The syllabus used in fermentation technology were taken directly off from standard textbooks in biochemistry and physiology or from standard biochemical engineering text books such as Bailey & Ollis (1986) and Aiba et al (1965)

This state of affairs remained as stagnation for a few years until an opportunity arises with the injection of massive funding in 1995 under the new vice chancellor Dr Abdullah Sanusi who managed to secure a one off funding to over haul the standard of teaching in University Malaya.

This window of opportunity was exploited by the author for a major review and revamp of the fermentation technology to make the course more relevant to microbiology students and the fermentation industries.

PERIOD 1995 to 2006

During the second phase in the development of the fermentation technology course, the author took the sole responsibility of teaching the whole course completely to avoid duplication and irrelevant syllabus.

With the one off funding in 1995, we acquired:

1 Six units of two litre bench top teaching fermentors
2 One 20 litre in situ sterilization fermentor.
3 Renovating the laboratory to be a purpose built
fermentation Laboratory
4 Acquirement of support equipment for fermentation such
as laminar flow cabinets, large autoclaves among others

This opportunity has allowed the University Malaya to enter its “golden era” in fermentation technology whereby important changes are made in form and substance to improve the fermentation technology course to the international standard. Changes are made in the following areas:

PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
The study of fermentation technology encompasses complete coverage of all activities starting right from upstream, mid stream to downstream. However greater emphasis is given on the operation, maintenance of the fermentor which represents the heart of fermentation technology.(McNeil & Harvey,1990)

The applied aspects of fermentation such as the various techniques are given more priority.

Where and when possible the teaching of fermentation technology is carried out with the show and tell concept rather than just lectures. Teaching of the subject is carried out in the laboratory rather than lecture rooms

The mode of learning the course will be more from the point of apprenticeship approach in a programmed series of practicals where under careful supervision the students are guided through the various practical steps. At the end of a practical the students must show the ability to carry out the practical independently.


TEACHING PRIORITY
The priority of the above equipments is for general teaching of the fermentation technology course and not to be used in research gives the boost to the teaching of fermentation technology at undergraduate level. This will ensure that the students will get the full benefit of the course. In most universities the priority of the use of fermentors are more for research and post graduate use.

INCREASING STUDENTS INTAKE
For the first time in the history of the fermentation technology course large number of students are able to take the course and acquire hands on experience in operating fermentors. This is further enhanced by offering the fermentation technology course twice in the academic year to allow more students to have the opportunity of taking the course

SYLLABUS REVAMPED
After numerous visits and discussions with those involved in the fermentation industries and studies of various existing fermentation courses and workshops, a new teaching philosophy and a very rigorous syllabus for fermentation technology was adopted and implemented from 1995.

RIGOROUS TRAINING
The new revamped fermentation technology course will ensure that all the students will have undergone proper and complete training in fermentation technology and adapting to the stringent demands of the course

The new programme in Fermentation Technology has the following characteristics
1 More laboratory and hands on practicals
2 More man hours in the lab
3 More industrial fermentation components
4 More team work

GIVING MORE TIME
Fermentation technology is just not any ordinary microbiology discipline with laboratory practicals completed within a three hour practical session. Most fermentation practicals involved a lot of upstream and downstream preparations and the actual fermentation process is continuous running from hours into days.

As a subject, fermentation technology requires the handling of the fermentor itself. It is a subject which is learnt by handling and manually learning the essential techniques

FULFILLING INDUSTRIAL NEEDS
The fermentation technology curricula become more relevant to the need of the various fermentation industries by including the following aspects in the course:

1 Aseptic demand and integrity
2 Fermentation optimization
3 Trouble shooting and repair
4 Process validation
5 Quality control
6 Process monitoring
7 Scaling up
8 HACCP and GMP

A good example of industrial requirements in operating fermentors is the ability to thoroughly cleaned the fermentors by standard operating procedures and validating that the process of cleaning of the fermentors has been properly carried out to the expected level of cleanliness.

The course will require for the students to carry out proper Cleaning in Place (CIP) and Cleaning out of Place (COP) properly

Students doing the fermentation technology practicals worked as a group consisting of six students in each group. Each group will be provided with their own fermentor throughout the course. Each group will complete the whole set of fermentation practicals throughout the semester. The mode of examination is by continuous assessment.

Since some of the fermentation practicals may stretch over a few days, each group are allowed flexi time to complete their practicals

Students who do not complete each practical to the expectation of the lecturer will have to repeat the experiments until the practicals are properly executed or they have acquired sufficient ‘clinical’ skills in the operation of the fermentors

LIST OF FERMENTATION PRACTICALS (1995-2006)

The list of experiments carried out are as shown:

ANATOMY OF FERMENTOR (3 hrs)
Anatomy of fermentor whereby the students are required to dismantle and identify the various components of the fermentor and study the various systems making up the fermentor

CLEANING OF FERMENTOR (2 hrs)
Students are required to learn the importance of cleaning the fermentor properly and to carry out COP cleaning

ASSEMBLING AND FINAL PRESTERILIZATION CHECK OF FERMENTOR ( 1 hr)
Students are required to assemble the fermentor and to check that everything is in order prior to autoclaving or sterilization of fermentor

ANATOMY AND CALIBRATION OF FERMENTOR ELECTRODES ( 3 hrs )
Students also learn the anatomy and function of the various standard electrodes in the fermentor such as ph, Dissolved oxygen, foam probe, temperature probe. The students will learn the correct methods of calibrating the ph and DO probes

FERMENTOR FILTERS ( 3 hrs)
Students built their own cartridge filters using glass wool

RHEOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FERMENTATION BROTH ( 3 hrs)
Students carry out studies on rheology of the fermentation broth,
Students will carry out simple experiments to monitor change in viscosity of the fermentation broth

MIXINGS OF FERMENTATION BROTH ( 3 hrs)
Types of primary, secondary and tertiary mixings using dyes as tracers. Newtonian and Non Newtonian broth will be used for comparative studies

SETTING UP FERMENTATION CONSOLE ( 3 hrs)
Students will learn how to set up the fermentation console

POST STERILIZATION PROCEDURES ( 3 hrs)
Students learn how to carry out post sterilization procedures

WATER LOSS STUDIES IN STERILIZATION STUDIES ( 3 hrs)
Students carry out water loss studies from fermentor due to sterilizations

BLANK FERMENTATION RUNS ( 5 days)
Students learn to carry out blank runs to test the integrity of the fermentors

ASEPTIC TECHNIQUES IN INOCULATION OF FERMENTORS ( 3 hrs)
Students learn aseptic methods of inoculating the fermentor

ASEPTIC SAMPLINGS FROM FERMENTORS ( 3 hrs)
Students learn how to carry out aseptic samplings from the fermentor

TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE MICROBIAL CONTAMINATIONS OF FERMENTATIONS ( Continuous assessments)
Students carry out various tests for detecting microbial contaminations

MICROBIAL SCREENING AND ISOLATIONS ( 1 week)
Students carry out microbial isolation and screening studies

MICROBIAL GROWTH CURVE STUDIES( 1 week)
Students carry out growth curve studies at different temperature and ph

AMPLIFICATION OF CELL CULTURES ( 1 week)
Students carry out microbial cell culture amplification

MONITORING OF FERMENTATION PROCESS ( 5 days)
Students carry out complete fermentation monitoring experiments using various parameters such as substrate, ph, biomass products etc using various chemical, instrumental techniques

OTR AND OUR IN FERMENTATION ( 3 hrs)
Students carry out OUR and OTR studies using the fermentors

DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING OF FERMENTATION PRODUCTS
Students carry out some down stream processing equipments

TROUBLE SHOOTING AND DIAGNOSTICS ( Continuous clinical observations)
Trouble shooting and diagnostics of the fermentor and fermentation process are continually carried out through out the whole fermentation practicals as part of their fermentation pathology exercise. Rapid physical, chemical, biochemical and microbiological techniques will be exposed

FINAL FERMENTATION PROJECT ( 2 weeks)
Where after learning all the above, the students will carry out detailed fermentation study of their choice incorporating all the lessons learned


3 CONCLUSIONS

Every university now aims to have fermentation technology course as part of their subjects offered to cope with the future demands in biotechnology. However in most cases the rush to establish the course has resulted in failure or inability to give the best due too poor planning or unforeseen circumstances

Fermentation technology as a subject is not as simple as just teaching microbiology or chemical engineering. It has its own unique identity. The subject of fermentation technology requires the complete understanding of upstream, midstream and downstream activities.

The key component in this subject is the hands on experience that must be learnt using real fermentors which is the essential component for any decent fermentation technology course

This paper has shown the problem and pitfalls and the journey to achieve a credible course in fermentation technology from expertise, laboratory facilities, hardware components and practical syllabus. It is hoped that that it will be a guideline to those wanting to offer or do research in the subject

REFERENCES

Aiba, S, Humprey, A, & Millis, ( 1965)
Biochemical Engineering
University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo

Bailey, J.E, & Ollis, J.F (1986)
Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals
Mc Graw Hill New York

McNeil,B & Harvey,L.M (Eds) (1990)
Fermentation: A Practical Approach
Oxford University Press, New York

Stanbury, P.F &Whitaker, A (1989)
Principles of Fermentation Technology
Pergamon Press, Oxford . UK


Read more!