Current Developments in Solid-state Fermentation

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.

a welcomed update in the field of solid-state fermentation

Autorentext
Professor Ashok Pandey, MSc, PhD is currently Head of the Biotechnology Division, Regional Research Laboratory, CSIR, Trivandrum, India. He graduated from the University of Kanpur and took his Master's degree with a first class in Chemistry. He followed this with a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Allahabad. Then he worked as scientist in the National Sugar Institute, Kanpur and Suddeutsche Zucker AG, Germany. He joined the Regional Research Laboratory, CSIR at Trivandrum in 1987. He has been Visiting Professor to UFPR- Brazil, UBP- France and UNESCO Professor. Ashok has strong research interest in the area of Industrial Biotechnology, especially in Bioprocess Technology. During the past 28 years of his career, the research carried out has credited him with five patents, 17 books, 12 technical reports and about 200 papers. He has supervised five PhDs and 57 Master s students. He has won several awards, which include Best Scientific Work Achievement award from the Cuban Govt, Raman Research Fellowship Award, GBF, Germany and CNRS, France Fellowships, Young Scientist Award, etc. He occupies the Chair (F&H) of the International Society of Food, Agriculture and Environment (Finland), President of Biotech Research Society of India, President of the Association of Microbiologists of India (Trivandrum chapter), Vice-Chairman (Kerala) of the All India Biotech Association- SC and life-member of the National Academy of Sciences (I), Society of Biological Chemists (I), Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (I), and Association of Microbiologists of India. He serves as the Editor of Bioresource Technology and is also on the Editorial Board of four other international and five Indian journals. He has also edited an Encyclopaedia published by Haworth Press, USA. His current R&D efforts are on mainly on Bioconversion of biomass, solid-state fermentation, biotechnological application agro-industrial residues for value addition, etc. Professor Carlos R. Soccol, PhD, is currently Head of the Process Biotechnology Laboratory and Co-ordinator of the PhD programme in Biotechnology at the Federal University of Parana (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil. He obtained his graduate and Master s degree in Chemical Engineering and Professor Titular thesis in Industrial Biotechnology from UFPR, followed by the PhD degree in Biotechnology from the Technological University of Compiegne, France. He has spent a stage as post-doctoral fellow at ORSTOM, Montpellier. Carlos has been instrumental in creating two major courses in UFPR, viz. PhD programm

Inhalt
General and Fundamentals Aspects of SSF.- General Considerations about Solid-state Fermentation Processes.- Factors Affecting Solid-state Fermentation.- Kinetics of Solid-state Fermentation.- Water Relations in Solid-state Fermentation.- Aspects of Design of Bioreactors in SSF.- Instrumentation and Control in SSF.- Informatics in Solid-state Fermentation.- SSF for Bulk Chemicals and Products.- Production of Enzymes by Solid-state Fermentation.- Production of Organic Acids by Solid-state Fermentation.- Production of Spores.- Mushroom Production.- SSF for Specialty Chemicals.- Gibberellic Acid Production.- Production of Antibiotics and other Commercially Valuable Secondary Metabolites.- Production of Pigments.- Production of Aroma Compounds.- SSF for Miscellaneous Applications.- Solid-state Fermentation for Food and Feed Application.- Application of Tropical Agro-industrial Residues as Substrate for Solid-state Fermentation Processes.- Preservation of Forage Crops by Solid-state Lactic Acid Fermentation-Ensiling.- Potential of Vermicomposting Technology in Solid Waste Management.