• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.326-355
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• 2024

Expectations for the industrialization of cultured meat are growing due to the increasing support from various sectors, such as the food industry, animal welfare organizations, and consumers, particularly vegetarians, but the progress of industrialization is slower than initially reported. This review analyzes the main issues concerning the industrialization of cultured meat, examines research and media reports on the development of cultured meat to date, and presents the current technology, industrialization level, and prospects for cultured meat. Currently, over 30 countries have companies industrializing cultured meat, and around 200 companies that are developing or industrializing cultured meat have been surveyed globally. By country, the United States has over 50 companies, accounting for more than 20% of the total. Acquiring animal cells, developing cell lines, improving cell proliferation, improving the efficiency of cell differentiation and muscle production, or developing cell culture media, including serum-free media, are the major research themes related to the development of cultured meat. In contrast, the development of devices, such as bioreactors, which are crucial in enabling large-scale production, is relatively understudied, and few of the many companies invested in the development of cultured meat have presented products for sale other than prototypes. In addition, because most information on key technologies is not publicly available, it is not possible to determine the level of technology in the companies, and it is surmised that the technology of cultured meat-related startups is not high. Therefore, further research and development are needed to promote the full-scale industrialization of cultured meat.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.253-259
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• 2023

Bioreactors are devices used by sewage treatment plants to process sewage and which produce active sludge, and sediments separated by solid-liquid are treated in anaerobic digestion tanks. In anaerobic digestion tanks, the volume of active sludge deposits is reduced and biogas is produced. After dehydrating the digestive sludge generated after anaerobic digestion, anaerobic digested wastewater, which features a high concentration of organic matters, is generated. In this study, the decomposition of organic carbon and nitrogen was studied by advanced oxidation process. Ozone-microbubble flotation process was used for oxidation pretreatment. During ozonation, the TOC decreased by 11.6%. After ozone treatment, the TOC decreased and the removal rate reached 80.4% as a result of the Ultra Violet-Advanced Oxidation Process (UV-AOP). The results with regard to organic substances before and after treatment differed depending on the organic carbon index, such as CODMn, CODCr, and TOC. Those indexes did not change significantly in ozone treatment, but decreased significantly after the UV-AOP process as the linkage treatment, and were removed by up to 39.1%, 15.2%, and 80.4%, respectively. It was confirmed that biodegradability was improved according to the ratio of CODMn to TOC. As for the nitrogen component, the ammonia nitrogen component showed a level of 3.2×10² mg/L or more, and the content was maintained at 80% even after treatment. Since most of the contaminants are removed from the treated water and its transparency is high, this water can be utilized as a resource that contains high concentrations of nitrogen.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2024

Interest and investment in cultivated meat are increasing because of the realization that it can effectively supply sufficient food resources and reduce the use of livestock. Nevertheless, accurate information on the specific technologies used for cultivated meat production and the characteristics of cultivated meat is lacking. Authorization for the use of cultivated meat is already underway in the United States, Singapore, and Israel, and other major countries are also expected to approve cultivated meat as food once the details of the intricate process of producing cultivated meat, which encompasses stages such as cell proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and assembly, is thoroughly established. The development and standardization of mass production processes and safety evaluations must precede the industrialization and use of cultivated meat as food. However, the technology for the industrialization of cultivated meat is still in its nascent stage, and the mass production process has not yet been established. The mass production process of cultivated meat may not be easy to disclose because it is related to the interests of several companies or research teams. However, the overall research flow shows that equipment development for mass production and cell acquisition, proliferation, and differentiation, as well as for three-dimensional production supports and bioreactors have not yet been completed. Therefore, additional research on the mass production process and safety of cultivated meat is essential. The consumer's trust in the cultivated meat products and production technologies recently disclosed by some companies should also be analyzed and considered for guiding future developments in this industry. Furthermore, close monitoring by academia and the government will be necessary to identify fraud in the cultivated meat industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.407-414
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• 2024

Phosphorus is an essential but non-renewable nutrient resource critical for agriculture. Luxury phosphorus uptake allows microalgae to synthesize polyphosphate and accumulate phosphorus, but, depending on the strain of algae, polyphosphate may be degraded within 4 hours of accumulation. We studied the recovery of phosphorus from wastewater through luxury uptake by an engineered strain of Synechocystis sp. with inhibited polyphosphate degradation and the effect of this engineered Synechocystis biomass on lettuce growth. First, a strain (∆phoU) lacking the phoU gene, which encodes a negative regulator of environmental phosphate concentrations, was generated to inhibit polyphosphate degradation in cells. Polyphosphate concentrations in the phoU knock-out strain were maintained for 24 h and then decreased slowly. In contrast, polyphosphate concentrations in the wild-type strain increased up to 4 h and then decreased rapidly. In addition, polyphosphate concentration in the phoU knockout strain cultured in semi-permeable membrane bioreactors with artificial wastewater medium was 2.5 times higher than that in the wild type and decreased to only 16% after 48 h. The biomass of lettuce treated with the phoU knockout strain (0.157 mg P/m²) was 38% higher than that of the lettuce treated with the control group. These results indicate that treating lettuce with this microalgal biomass can be beneficial to crop growth. These results suggest that the use of polyphosphate-accumulating microalgae as biofertilizers may alleviate the effects of a diminishing phosphorous supply. These findings can be used as a basis for additional genetic engineering to increase intracellular polyphosphate levels.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.501-510
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• 2006

To investigate the effects of MLSS concentration and influent C/N ratio on the nitrogen removal efficiency of alternately intermittently aerated nonwoven fabric filter bioreactors, the MLSS concentrations of the reactors were maintained at approximately 5,500 mg/L, 10,000 mg/L and 15,000 mg/L, and the influent TCOD/TKN ratio was decreased gradually from 5 to 2 by adding $NH_4Cl$. The influent was prepared by diluting a food waste leachate to a TCOD concentration of about 300 mg/L. The results of the experiment showed F/M ratios less than 0.112 g TCOD/g MLSS-day, average TCOD removal efficiencies of above 95%, and an average observed microbial yield coefficient of 0.283 g MLSS/g COD removed. The nitrification efficiencies were computed to be always better than 96% except one case where the nitrification efficiency was 90.5% when the MLSS concentration and the influent TCOD/TKN ratio was 5,500 mg/L and 2, respectively. The denitrification efficiency deteriorated as the influent TCOD/TKN ratio decreased. The average denitrification efficiency at the MLSS concentration of 10,000 mg/L was 10.7% better than that at the MLSS concentration of 5,500 mg/L, and the denitrification rate improved at a rate of 2.66 mg NL as the MLSS concentration increased by 1,000 mg/L. When the MLSS concentration was 15,000 mg/L, however, the average denitrification efficiency was merely 4.6% higher compared to when the MLSS concentration was 5,500 mg/L, and the denitrification rate increased at a rate of 0.75 mg N/L per 1,000 mg/L MLSS increase. Therefore, no strict proportional relationship was found between MLSS concentration and endogenous denitrification rate. The average alkalinity consumption rate was 3.36 mg alkalinity/mg T-N removed, which is similar to the theoretical value of 3.57 mg alkalinity/mg T-N removed, but the rate increased as the influent TCOD/TKN ratio decreased.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2014

The outdoor mass cultivation is not possible for microalgae in Korea all year round, due to cold winter season. It is not easy to maintain proper level of productivity of microalgae even in winter. To prevent a drastic decrease of temperature in a greenhouse, two layers were covered additionally, inside the original plastic layer of the greenhouse. The middle layer was made up of plastic and the inner layer, of non-woven fabric. Acrylic transparent bioreactors were constructed to get more sunlight, not only from the upper side but also from the lateral and bottom directions. In winter at freezing temperatures, six different culture conditions were compared in the triply covered, insulated greenhouse. Wastewater after anaerobic digestion was used for the cultivation of microalgae to minimize the production cost. Water temperature in the bioreactors remained above $10^{\circ}C$ on average, even without any external heating system, proving that the triple-layered greenhouse is effective in keeping heat. Algal biomass reached to 0.37g $L^{-1}$ with the highest temperature, in the experimental group of light-reflection board at the bottom, with nitrogen and phosphorus removal rate of 92% and 99%, respectively. When fatty acid composition was analyzed using gas-chromatography, linoleate (C18 : 3n3) occupied the highest proportion up to 61%, in the all experiment groups. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), however, did not decrease during the cultivation, but rather increased. Although the algal biomass productivity was not comparable to warm seasons, it was possible to maintain water temperature for algae cultivation even in the coldest season, at the minimum cost.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2006

Two mesophilic trickling bed bioreactors filled with two different types of media, hydrophilic- and hydrophobic-cubes, were designed and conducted for hydrogen production under the anaerobic fermentation of sucrose. Each bioreactor consisted of the column packed with polymeric cubes and inoculated with heat-treated sludge obtained from anaerobic digestion tank. A defined medium containing sucrose was fed by the different hydraulic retention time(HRT), and recycle rate. Hydrogen concentrations in gas-phase were constant, averaging 40% of biogas throughout the operation. Hydrogen production rate was increased till $10.5\;L{\cdot}h^{-1}{\cdot}L^{-1}$ of bioreactor when influent sucrose concentrations and recycle rates were varied. At the same time, the hydrogen production rate with hydrophobic media application was higher than its hydrophilic media application. No methane was detected when the reactor was under a normal operation. The major fermentation by-products in the liquid effluent of the both trickling biofilters were acetate, butyrate and lactate. In order to run in the long term operation of both reactor filled with hydrophilic and hydrophobic media, biofilm accumulation on hydrophilic media and biogas produced should be controlled through some process such as periodical backwashing or gas-purging. Four sample were collected from each reactor on the opposite hydrogen production rate, and their bacterial communities were compared by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of PCR products generated using bacterial 16s rRNA gene primers (8f and 926r). It was expressed a marked difference in bacterial communities of both reactors. The trickling bed bioreactor with hydrophobic media demonstrates the feasibility of the process to produce hydrogen gas. A likely application of this reactor technology can be hydrogen gas recovery from pre-treatment of high carbohydrate-containing wastewaters.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2001

The biosynthesis of Lovastatin, a cholesterol lowering agent formed by the filamentous fungus, cerulenin-resistant Aspergillus terreus mutant was studied in shake flasks and bioreactors. The lovastatin production could be improved by fed-batch under the limited condition of carbon source. The relationship between the fungal morphology and the lovastatin production was also examined during the fed-batch cultures. The fed-batch studies in shake flasks were carried out to find the optimum glucose feeding method, and the pulsed feeding of glucose from 3 days onward at 24 hours intervals was found to be optimal to increase the lovastatin production and reduce the average pellet size. When the pH was controlled at around 5.8 during the whole fermentation period, the lovastatin concentration reached 384 mg/L, which is much higher than the values obtained pH-uncontrolled and pH 7.4. The optimal glucose feeding strategies was found that 30 g/L of glucose was added initially in batch mode, and then fed-batch was conducted by continuous addition of glucose solution(180 g/L) from 72 to 240 hr at a rate of 1.2 mL/hr at $28^{\circ}C$, pH 5.8, 400 rpm, and 1.0 vvm. The lovastatin concentration of 547 mg/L was obtained in 168 hr. It was about 1.5 times higher than the value of the batch fermentation.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.309-315
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• 2000

Panax ginseng is an important medicinal plant that has been used worldwide for geriatric, tonic, stomachic, and aphrodisiac treatments. Ginsenosides contained in the ginseng root are the main substances having active functions for human body. The price of ginseng is very expensive due to a complex process of cultivation, and the yield of ginseng is limited, which cannot meet the demand of the increasing market. Researchers have applied plant biotechnology to solve the problems but there are still things to be determined towards ginsenoside production by large-scale adventitious root culture. In this experiment, 5 to 20 liter bioreactors were employed to determine optimal conditions for adventitious root culture and ginsenoside production of Panax gineng. Callus was induced from the ginseng root on MS agar medium containing 1.0 mg. $L^{-1}$ 2,4-D and 0.1 mg. $L^{-1}$ kinetin. Then the callus was cultured on MS agar medium supplemented with 2.0 mg. $L^{-1}$ IBA, 0.1 mg. $L^{-1}$ kinetin, and 30 g. $L^{-1}$ to induce adventitious roots. The maximum root growth and ginsenoside production were obtained in 1/2 MS medium. 2.0 mg. $L^{-1}$ naphthalene acetic acid resulted in greater root growth than 2.0 mg $L^{-1}$ indole-3-butyric acid. Ginsenoside content increased with 2.0 mg. $L^{-1}$ benzyl adenin or kinetin. High concentrations of benzyl adenin (above 3.0 mg. $L^{-1}$ ) decreased the adventitious root growth and ginsenoside productivity. N $H_{4}$$^{+}$ inhibited the ginsenoside accumulation, while high concentrations of $K^{+}$, $Mg_{2}$$^{+}$, and $Ca_{2}$$^{+}$ increased it. N $H_{4}$$^{+}$ at 0.5 and 1.0 times of the normal amount in 3/4 SH medium resulted in the greatest biomass increase, but the highest ginsenoside productivity was obtained when N $O_{3}$$^{-}$ was used as the sole nitrogen source in the medium. Most microelements at high concentrations in the medium inhibited the root growth, but high concentrations of MnS $O_4$enhanced the root growth. Root dry weight increased with increasing sucrose concentrations up to 50 g. $L^{-1}$ , but decreased from 70 g $L^{-1}$ Ginsenoside productivity was maximized at the range of 20 to 30 g. $L^{-1}$ sucrose. In the experiment on bioreactor types, cone and balloon types were determined to be favorable for both adventitious root growth and ginsenoside production. Jasmonic acid was effective for increasing ginsenoside contents and Rb group ginsenosides mainly increased. These results could be employed in commercial scale bioreactor cultures of Panax ginseng.x ginseng.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.141-148
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• 2017

The oxidation ditch (OD) is one of the most widely used processes for treating municipal wastewater. However, the microbial communities in the OD systems have not been well characterized, and little information about the shift of bacterial community during the startup process of the OD systems is available. In this study, we investigated the bacterial community changes during the startup period (over 100 days) of a full-scale OD. The results showed that the bacterial community dramatically changed during the startup period. Similar to the activated sludge samples in other studies, Proteobacteria (accounting for 26.3%-48.4%) was the most dominant bacterial phylum in the OD system, but its relative abundance declined nearly 40% during the startup process. It was also found that Planctomycetes proliferated greatly (from 4.79% to 13.5%) and finally replaced Bacteroidetes as the second abundant phylum in the OD system. Specifically, some bacteria affiliated with genus Flavobacterium exhibited remarkable decreasing trends, whereas bacterial species belonging to the OD1 candidate division and Saprospiraceae family were found to increase during the startup process. Despite of the bacterial community shift, the organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the effluent were always in low concentrations, suggesting the functional redundancy of the bacterial community. Moreover, by comparing with the bacterial community in other municipal wastewater treatment bioreactors, some potentially novel bacterial species were found to be present in the OD system. Collectively, this study improved our understandings of the bacterial community structure and microbial ecology during the startup of a full-scale wastewater treatment bioreactor.