This set of Bioprocess Engineering Interview Questions and Answers focuses on “The Story of Penicillin:How Biologists and Engineers Work Together”.
1. In 1928, Alexander Fleming was working on which type of Bacteria also named “Golden Staph”?
a) Streptococcus pneumonia
b) Staphylococcal pneumonia
c) Staphylococcus aureus
d) Streptococcus aureus
View Answer
Explanation: Alexander Fleming was trying to isolate the bacterial strains of Staphylococcus aureus, as to make an antibacterial / antibiotic against it because its infection are severe and is the most antibiotic-resistant strain.
2. Which biochemist along with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, designed a lab-scale process to produce enough Penicillin for animal tests?
a) Sir Edward Penley Abraham
b) Dr. Norman George Heatley
c) Sir Alexander Fleming
d) Dr. Rudolph Emmerich
View Answer
Explanation: Dr. Norman George Heatley was able to develop the technique for efficiently purifying Penicillin in bulk for animal tests and by this, he invented the technique back-extraction.
3. Which type of fermentation was used by Engineers to produce penicillin on large scale during World War 2?
a) Semi-Solid Fermentation
b) Deep-Tank Fermentation
c) Biphasic Fermentation
d) Solid-State Fermentation
View Answer
Explanation: The Deep-Tank Batch Fermentation in which there is the application of submerged culture technique which was able to produce Penicillin of Approximately 50mg/ml which grew on large scale during World War 2.
4. Is Penicillium notatum and Penicillium chrysogenum both are same in terms of yield?
a) True
b) False
View Answer
Explanation: Penicillium chrysogenum and Penicillium notatum both yields Penicillin but P.notatum also yields Notatin, P.notatum which was first discovered by Fleming but did not produced large amounts of penicillin in contrast to P.chrysogenum.
5. Penicillin production occurs in which growth phase?
a) Lag phase
b) Log phase
c) Stationary phase
d) Death phase
View Answer
Explanation: Like all antibiotics, Penicillin is a secondary metabolite, so is only produced in the stationary phase as Bacteria produce secondary metabolite such as Antibiotics after the active stage (log phase) of the growth cycle.
6. What is Slurry which is used in the Penicillin production process?
a) Semi – Liquid mixture
b) Solid – Liquid mixture
c) Gas – Liquid mixture
d) Liquid
View Answer
Explanation: The Semi – Liquid mixture also known as “Undigested Slurry “which goes under the fermentation / anaerobic process and later on comes out as byproduct of fermentation process as “Digested Slurry”.
7. Which sort of Fermenter is used for the production of Penicillin?
a) Batch Fermenter, Fed-Batch Process
b) Fed-Batch Fermenter, Fed-Batch Process
c) Continuous Batch Fermenter , Fed-Batch Process
d) Fed-Batch Fermenter, Batch process
View Answer
Explanation: For Large production of Penicillin a Batch Fermenter, and a Fed-Batch Process is normally used to prolong the stationary period and so as to increase the production of Penicillin and Batch is used over continuous fermenter for large scale production and fed-batch process is used to overcome its disadvantages.
8. Which type of process is involved to produce Crystalline Potassium Penicillin?
a) Evaporation
b) Annealing
c) Decomposition
d) Precipitation
View Answer
Explanation: Potassium ions are added to precipitate salt of Penicillin, so as to get its pure form in the later stage and the process involved in this is salting out technique which also results in less loss of Penicillin during fermentation process.
9. Why is Procaine used in the process of production of Penicillin?
a) Because Procaine is antibiotic in nature
b) Because Procaine is antifungal in nature
c) Because Procaine is analgesic in nature
d) Because Procaine is anti-allergic in nature
View Answer
Explanation: Procaine is an analgesic in nature as it is primarily used to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of Penicillin and which is also the derivative of cocaine probably provides the longevity to Penicillin.
10. Rotary drum tank reactor comes under which type of bioreactors?
a) Mechanically agitated bioreactors
b) Air driven bioreactors/Pneumatically agitated bioreactors
c) Non-agitated bioreactors
d) Wave bioreactors
View Answer
Explanation: Rotary drum tank reactor comes under Mechanically agitated bioreactors because it contains Stirrer paddle which provides efficient mixing and also causes production on a large scale.
11. What is the role of Surge tank in Penicillin production process?
a) Sterilization
b) Filtration
c) Extraction
d) Evaporation
View Answer
Explanation: Surge tanks also known as a Recycle tank that recycles facility so that water could be circulated through the system during cleaning and sterilization of the plant and helps to overcome the disturbances in unit start-up time or batch-batch variation which commonly arises in batch operation.
12. Which of the following comes under the Downstream Process?
a) Inoculum preparation
b) Equipment sterilization
c) Media Formulation
d) Separation
View Answer
Explanation: Separation is the first step in product recovery in downstream processing as it involves the separation of desired cells from the culture medium and which is mechanically done by Rotary Drum Filter.
13. Why Penicillin does not affect the human body when taken?
a) Because it is a Broad spectrum antibiotic
b) Because it is a Narrow spectrum antibiotic
c) Because it is an analgesic
d) Because it is a Narcotic drug
View Answer
Explanation: Penicillin is the Narrow spectrum antibiotic that only kills the specific bacteria or microorganisms and not the normal bacteria or microorganisms present in Human body, in this way human body is unaffected.
Sanfoundry Global Education & Learning Series – Bioprocess Engineering.
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