Solid State Fermentation

Although one of the oldest microbial technologies used in food processing, solid-state fermentation (SSF) had, until recently, fallen out of favor. However, based on a series of established mathematical models, new design concepts for SSF bioreactors and process control strategies have been proposed, allowing SSF technology to reach new levels. Solid State Fermentation for Foods and Beverages covers these new technologies and their application to food and beverage production. The book systematically describes the production of solid-state fermented food and beverage in terms of the history and development of SSF technology and SSF foods, bio-reactor design, fermentation process, various substrate origins and sustainable development. It emphasizes Oriental traditional foods produced by SSF such as sufu, vinegar, soy sauce, Chinese distilled spirit, and rice wine. The authors address such engineering issues as mass and heat transfer and energy equation calculation of solid-state fermentation, dynamic modeling of solid-state fermentation, and process control of solid-state fermentation. Covering the latest developments and achievements in the field of SSF, the book provides a detailed introduction to various solid-state fermented foods and beverages, including product category, characteristics, functionalities, safety issues, and consumer perception. It explores real advantages of SSF processes and how their application at real scale for high quality production that is more and less costly.

“Modern Solid State Fermentation: Theory and Practice” covers state-of-the-art studies in the field of solid state fermentation (SSF). In terms of different characteristics of microbial metabolites, this book catalogs SSF into two main parts: anaerobic and aerobic SSF. Based on the principles of porous media and strategies of process control and scale-up, which are introduced in the book, it not only presents a well-founded explanation of essence of solid state fermentation, but also their influence on microbial physiology. In addition, due to the rapid development of this field in recent years, inert support solid state fermentation is also examined in detail. At last, the modern solid state fermentation technology platform is proposed, which will be used in solid biomass bioconversion. This book is intended for biochemists, biotechnologists and process engineers, as well as researchers interested in SSF. Dr. Hongzhang Chen is a Professor at Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

This concise professional reference provides a fundamental framework for the design and operation of solid-state fermentation bioreactors, enabling researchers currently working at laboratory scale to scale up their processes. The authors survey bioreactor types in common use, and describe in depth how to plan a project, and model heat transfer phenomena. The book includes case studies, and a review of practical issues involved in bioreactor performance.

This book reviews the wide range of products and applications of solid state fermentation as well as the development of this cultivation technology over the last years. In this book, readers will also learn about the challenges of solid state fermentation, including process management, reactor design, scale-up and the formation of process-specific products. Solid fermentation is a traditional cultivation technique of food technology and involves all cultivations of microorganisms on a solid substrate without free liquid phase. In the course of development of Biotechnology it was replaced by liquid cultivation mainly in the western countries. Over the past few years, solid-state fermentation is now becoming more important and has moved more back into focus. Especially, it is suitable for the cultivation of filamentous organisms, like ascomycetes and basidiomycetes, but also for various yeasts and bacteria. The products and applications of solid-state fermentation are as diverse as the microorganisms. They range from enzyme production to the production of antibiotics and pigments to the use in environmental technology and energy production.

G.HAINNAUX Departement Milieu et Activites Agricoles, Centre ORSTOM, 911 Avenue d' Agropolis, B.P. 5045, 34032 Montpellier Cedex , France. Solid state fermentation, popularly abbreviated as SSF, is currently investigated by many groups throughout the world. The study of this technique was largely neglected in the past in European and Western countries and there is now a high demand for SSF, meaning in food, environment, agricultural, phannaceutical and many other biotechnological applications. It gives me satisfaction to note that the importance of this technique was realised at my department way back in 1975 since then, our team has put concentrated efforts on developing this technique. xvii Foreword Advances in Solid State Fermentation Foreword M. PUYGRENIER Agropolis Valorisation, Avenue d' Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. On the name of the Scientific Community, I would like to express the wish that this International Symposium on SSF should be successful. Solid State Fermentation is part of biotechnology research. It consists on seeding solid culture medium with bacteria or fungi (filamentous or higher) and on producing, in this medium (solid components and exudates) metabolites and high value products. In fact, this process is very old. In older industries such the food and agricultural, this technique has been extensively used. An example of this is the production of pork sausages and Roquefort cheese. Pharmaceutical industry could make extensive use of SSF in the production of secondary metabolites of many kinds and development in this direction is soon expected.

Over the period of last two decades, there has been significant resurgence in solid-state fermentation due to the numerous benefits it offers, especially in the engineering and environmental aspects. SSF has shown much promise in the development of several bioprocesses and products. This resurgence gained further momentum during the last 5-6 years with the developments in fundamental and applied aspects. A good deal of information has been generated in published literature and patented information. Several commercial ventures have come up based on SSF in different parts of the world. The contents are organized into four parts: Part 1 deals with the General and Fundamentals aspects of SSF; Part 2 deals with the production of bulk chemicals and products such as enzymes, organic acids, spores and mushrooms in SSF; Part 3 is on the use of SSF for specialty chemicals such as gibberellic acid, antibiotics and other pharmaceutically valuable secondary metabolites, pigments, and aroma compounds; Part 4 deals with the use of SSF miscellaneous application such as SSF for food and feed applications, agro-industrial residues as substrates in SSF and the production of silage and vermicompost.

Papers presented at Specialist Group Meeting & Symposium on Solid State Fermentation, held at Trivandrum, during March 23-24, 1994, organized by the Regional Research Laboratory, Trivandrum.

This book complements others in biotechnology especially in industrialmicrobiology-biotechnology. It has been written with a research andacademic readership in mind but will prove equally beneficial to theprocess technologists and scientists working in biotechnology-basedbusiness and industries, large and small. The chapters include theinformation and facts based on the practically applicable knowledgegathered from up-to-date complete research published on the subjectand related topics. The contents of each chapter deal with How-to , asopposed to a Review of Literature with citation of a large number ofnon-applicable references .