Browsing by Subject "Microorganisms"

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    Beschreibung und Optimierung der Vorgänge der dynamischen Gefriertrocknung
    (2018) Pliske, Roland; Kohlus, Reinhard
    Freeze-drying is a gentle but also time-consuming drying method. One reason for the longer drying times is the formation of a dry layer during drying, which is a heat and mass transfer resistance. One approach for reducing the drying time is removing these resistances. The detail of an approach to remove the dry layer within a special powder mixer has been investigated. The process of freeze-drying while agitating has been termed ‘dynamic freeze-drying’. The used mixer was a plow-share type, in which the dry layer is actively rubbed-off permanently during the drying process. In this process the drying always takes place on the moister particle surface. This corresponds to the characteristics of a constant drying rate period, which can be considered confirmed by independent dynamic freeze-drying experiments. Freeze-drying process typically do not show a constant drying rate period. The drying front retreats immediately at the start of drying into inside of the particle. Therefore, drying rate of dynamic-freeze drying could be increased. The drying rate can be furthermore increased applying higher heating temperature in the case of dynamic freeze-drying compared to static freeze-drying. The danger of a collapse is prevented by abrasion of the dry layer during dynamic freeze drying. It has also been shown that under identical drying conditions, dynamic freeze-drying has an up to tenfold faster drying rate compared to conventional, static freeze-drying. One reason for this is a higher conductive heat flux into the bed. Another reason is the conversion of the kinetic energy into heat energy during the mixing of the bed, which is additionally used for the sublimation. Since the dry layer is removed during dynamic freeze-drying, the advantage should lie by larger initial diameters, because there are greater heat and mass transfer resistances compared to smaller initial particle diameters. This effect is overcompensated by the number of particles that are present if the same initial mass will be used for creation smaller particles than bigger particles. The contact number of particles to mixer wall determines the heat transfer by conduction and particle to particle determines the heat transfer by friction. For this reason, the drying time of the dynamic freeze-drying of smaller diameter beds is always lower. All results indicate that the number of contact points of particles to the mixer wall and other particles is relevant for the energy transfer to the bed during dynamic freeze-drying. As the particles become smaller during the drying process, however their number remains constant, and so is the effective heat transfer coefficient. A positive effect on drying rate was determined for the dried powder, which is within the mixer during the drying process. While drying with low rotational frequency less dried powder was discharged from the mixer and the experimental drying times always were lower than the modeled ones. The powder is heated at the mixer wall and is then afterwards reintroduced into the bed. At high rotational frequencies the powder is fluidized up more intensively and discharged with the water vapor from the mixer. During the drying process the water vapor leaves the mixer and partially the dried final product, too, and the load decreases and the energy input as well. Freeze-drying covers a large part of microorganism conservation so called starter culture conservation. First trials in using dynamic freeze-drying for this application have been conducted. Dynamic freeze-drying has been used in the drying of microorganisms in order to compare the viable count and the activity of the dried microorganisms with those from static freeze-drying. The presented results show that the viable count of the dynamic freeze-dried microorganisms is reduced. The activity however is partly higher than that of static freeze-dried microorganisms, which indicates a stress activation. These results were found using starter cultures that were frozen without adding "protective medium". Whether trials using protective medium will show similar results is currently unclear. The phenomenon of stress activation has to be confirmed using a large variety of lactic acid bacteria.
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    Biological regulation of subsoil C-cycling
    (2019) Preußer, Sebastian; Kandeler, Ellen
    Soils are the largest terrestrial reservoir of organic carbon (OC). Substantial proportions of the stored OC are found in stabilized form in deeper soil layers. Beside the quality and quantity of C input from plant biomass, C storage in soil is primarily controlled by the microbial decomposition capacity. Various physical, chemical and biological factors (e.g., substrate availability, temperature, water content, pH, texture) vary within soil profiles and directly or indirectly influence the abundance, composition and activity of microbial communities and thus the microbial C turnover. While soil microbiological research has so far focused mainly on processes in topsoil, the mechanisms of C storage and turnover in subsoil are largely unknown. The objective of the present thesis was therefore to investigate the specific influence of substrate availability and different environmental factors as well as their interactions on microbial communities and their regulatory function in subsoil C-cycling. This objective was addressed in three studies. In the first and second study, one-year field experiments were established in which microbial communities from different soil depths were exposed to altered habitat conditions to identify crucial factors influencing the spatial and temporal development of microbial abundance and substrate utilization within soil profiles. This was achieved by reciprocal translocation of soils between subsoil horizons (first study) and topsoil and subsoil horizons (second study) in combination with addition of 13C-labelled substrates and different sampling dates. In the third study, a flow cascade experiment with soil columns from topsoil and subsoil horizons and soil minerals (goethite) coated with 13C-labelled organic matter (OM) was established. This laboratory experiment investigated the importance of exchange processes of OM with reactive soil minerals for the quality and quantity of dissolved OM and the influence of these soil micro-habitats on microbial abundance and community composition with increasing soil depth. In the first study, the reciprocal translocation of subsoils from different soil depths revealed that due to comparable micro-climatic conditions and soil textures within the subsoil profile, no changes in microbial biomass, community composition and activity occurred. Moreover, increasing microbial substrate utilization in relation to the quantity of added substrate indicated that deep soil layers exhibit high potential for microbial C turnover. However, this potential was constrained by low soil moisture in interplay with the coarse soil texture and the resulting micro-scale fragmentation of the subsoil environment. The bacterial substrate utilization was more affected by this spatial separation between microorganisms and potentially available substrate than that of fungi, which was further confirmed by the translocation experiment with topsoil and subsoil in the second study. While the absolute substrate utilization capacity of bacteria decreased from the more moist topsoil to the drier subsoil, fungi were able to increase their substrate utilization and thus to partially compensate the decrease in C input from other sources. Furthermore, the addition of root litter as a preferential C source of fungal decomposer communities led to a pronounced fungal growth in subsoil. The third study demonstrated the high importance of reactive soil minerals both in topsoil and in subsoil for microbial growth due to extensive exchange processes of OM and the associated high availability of labile C. In particular copiotrophic bacteria such as Betaproteobacteria benefited from the increased C availability under non-limiting water conditions leading to a pronounced increase in bacterial dominance in the microbial communities of these soil micro-habitats. In conclusion, this thesis showed that subsoil exhibits great potential for both bacterial and fungal C turnover, albeit this potential is limited by various factors. This thesis, however, allowed to determine the specific effects of these factors on bacteria and fungi and their function in subsoil C-cycling and thus to identify those factors of critical importance. The micro-climate in subsoil, in particular soil moisture, was the primary factor limiting bacterial growth and activity, whereas fungi were more strongly restricted by substrate limitations.