The Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, Punjab - which is affiliated to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research – will be the site of a two-week course on fermentation technology for production of value-added products from agricultural residues, which will commence on December 3, 2012 and conclude on December 16, 2012.
The course would be conducted under the aegis of the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), and its director will be Harinder Singh Oberoi, principal scientist (microbiology), AS and EC Division, CIPHET. Only 16 seats are available. No course fees will be charged. However, the trainees will be paid to and fro travelling allowance by train (AC-II/AC-III/sleeper class) or bus.
All the expenses towards boarding and lodging are expected to met by the participants from the budget allocated for the same. Post-graduate degree holders in microbiology, biochemistry, process engineering, food science and technology and fermentation technology and allied scientists are eligible to take the course.
Participants should be working at the level of assistant professor or above in the aforementioned disciplines and should be serving as regular faculty members in their respective organisations. Selection will be based on the academic qualifications, experience and scientific accomplishments of the applicants. The last date for receipt for applications is November 15, 2012.
In India, about 600 million tonnes of biomass is produced every year, of which agricultural residues form a major chunk. Some of the agricultural residues are diverted for production of animal feed, compost, mushrooms and in paper making, however, a significant portion of the biomass is either dumped in municipal bins to rot or burnt leading to environmental pollution.
Agricultural residues, because of their composition in terms of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and phenolics could serve as ideal sources/substrates for production of enzymes, ethanol, hydrogen, organic acids, prebiotics, etc. Fermentation processes could be ideally employed for bioconversion of agricultural wastes into the value-added products.
All factors, such as fermenter design, selection of microbial strain and its efficiency, role of medium ingredients, strain improvement approaches, product recovery, concentration and purification of the end product are considered before a fermentation process is designed for a particular end product.
The training programme has been designed to provide participants an insight into the different approaches used in fermentation for improved product recovery.
The highlights of the programme are listed as follows:
(i) Fermentation techniques employed for production of value-added products, such as enzymes, ethanol, xylitol and hydrogen
(ii) High throughput screening techniques for microbes producing biomolecules
(iii) Approaches for utilisation of pentose sugars and their fermentation
(iv) Enzyme assays, purification and characterisation
(v) Prebiotics and probiotics
(vi) Genomic and proteomic approaches for strain improvement in cellulolytic, xylanolytic and fermenting microorganisms
(vii) Application of membrane technology for concentration and purification of oligosaccharides, enzymes and other biomolecules
(viii) Feed evaluation studies of the residues after enzyme extraction
(ix) Fermenter design and scale-up of the fermentation processes
(x) Hands on training on enzyme assays, characterization of sugars and enzymes
(xi) Visits to nearby laboratories for on the site experience.
