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A novel method is described for the on-line determination of viable cell number. It has been tested in fermentations of Escherichia coli. The cells are transfected with the gene for firefly luciferase and fed low levels of luciferin in the medium. The reaction requires ATP, so the nonviable cells cannot produce light. Thus, light production is linear with viable cell density from innoculation through most of exponential growth. The light emitted by these cells is then conducted from the reaction vessel to the light detection equipment by an optical fiber. With the equipment described below, as few as a 10(6) cells/mL, or an OD(600) of 0.004, are easily detectable and concentrations greater than 10(10) cells/mL are well within range. The data are collected by a computer, so adaptation to on-line control applications is straightforward. During lag phase, this method is much more accurate then optical density measurements. At the end of exponential growth, rapid changes in light production mark carbon source depletion and the onset of cell lysis. A simple model accounts for the luciferin used during the fermentation and corrects the light detected to the proper cell density.

A fermentation process for the microbial production of an amphipatic lipopolysaccharide, emulsan, has been established using a triglyceride carbon source in a coordinated carbon-nitrogen feed strategy. The polysaccharide was produced by the Acinetobacter strain at a productivity of about 0.5 g emulsan/L h while utilizing only the fatty acids (FA) portion of the triglycerides or free fatty acids that were fed into the medium.A useful correlation between the utilization of the fatty acids and the consumption of the nitrogen was found and employed for the practical feed strategy using an appropriate C--N ratio (7.7 g C/g N) of the soybeanoil (SBO) (carbon source) to the ammonium hydroxide base (nitrogen source). Either the pH control or the supervising computer system could accomplish the adequate balanced feed in to the fermentor. Lipolysis slowdown was overcome by switching from a triglyceride carbon source to a free fatty acids one. A yield of about 0.2 g emulsan/g fatty acids was obtained and a final concentration of over 20 g/L was reached. The polymeric product was found to be partially associated with the cell-oil complexes in the fermentation broth unless the oily carbon source was efficiently exhausted. A fedbatch fermentation that employed a shift of the carbon source feed from triglycerides to free fatty acids appeared to be an appropriate and feasible way of producing the polymer.

Suspensions of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis spores were exposed to conventional thermal and microwave energy at 2,450 MHz. The degrees of inactivation by the different energy sources were compared quantitatively. During the transient heating period by microwave energy, approximately a 6 log cycle reduction in viability was encountered for E. coli . This reduction was nearly identical to what is expected for the same time-temperature exposure to conventional heating. Heating of B. subtilis spores by conventional and microwave energy was also carried out at 100 C, in ice and for transient heating. The degree of inactivation by microwave energy was again identical to that by conventional heating. In conclusion, inactivation of E. coli and B. subtilis by exposure to microwaves is solely due to the thermal energy, and there is no per se effect of microwaves.