BIOPROCESS ENGINEERING

UNIT 1
1.  In which of the following bioreactors, the particles are not immersed in liquid?
a) Air – lift reactor
b) Stirred vessel
c) Packed bed
d) Trickle bed
2. Micro carrier beads can be used in
a) Fluidized bed
b) Stirred vessel
c) Packed bed
d) Trickle bed
3. Baffles are not needed in up and down agitation bioreactor
a) True
b) False
4. Which type of reactor, aeration is generally accomplished in a separate vessel?
a) Fluidised bed
b) Trickle bed
c) Packed bed
d) Stirred and air driven reactors
5. In a perfectly mixed reactor
a) The output composition is different from input composition
b) The output composition is identical from input composition
c) Both output and input composition are constant
d) Both output and input composition are not constant
6. Convert vmax = 7 mmol m-3 s-1 into mM h-1
a) 25
b) 20
c) 25.20
d) 20.25
7. In batch reaction time with enzyme deactivation, calculate the first-order deactivation rate
constant.
(Given – so = 12 mM; vmax = 9 mM h-1; Km = 8.9 mM; sf = 1.2 mM; th = 4.4 h).
a) 0.150 h-1
b) 0.158 h-1
c) 0.155 h-1
d) 0.154 h-1
8. A fed batch reactor initially contains 2 litre of medium. If it was fed at 1 litre per hour, then
after 10 hours, the volume of the reactor will be
a) 1 litre
b) 2 litre
c) 3 litre
d) 13litre
9. Mixing per unit volume is observed to be poorest in
a) Continuous packed bed reactor
b) Continuous fluidized bed bioreactor
c) Continuous airlift bioreactor
d) None of the above
10. The cellular productivity in a continuous stirred tank fermenter (CSTF) increases with an
increase in the dilution rate and reaches a maximum value. If the dilution rate is increased
beyond the maximum point, the productivity will
a) Decrease abruptly
b) Increase
c) Increase drastically
d) Be zero
11. Fluidized bed bioreactors provide higher mass transfer rates than packed bed bioreactors
because
a) Mixing is higher in fluidized bed bioreactors
b) Particles move with the fluid in a fluidized bed bioreactor
c) Immobilized particles are smaller in the fluidized bed bioreactors
d) All of the above
12. Immobilized cell reactors for wastewater treatment have the advantage of having/being
a) Higher cell concentration
b) More stable and prevent washout
c) Higher dilution rate before the cells washout
d) All of the above
13. What are the stages of cell recycle cultivation?
a) Autotrophic
b) Mixotrophic
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above
14. Which is the applications of plug flow reactor?
a) Slow reactions
b) Large scale reactions
c) Batch production
d) Homogenous reactions
15. In fed batch fermentation, mass of substrate utilized is calculated using the relationship
a) initial mass of substrate in the reactor + final mass of substrate in the reactor + flow
rate x [substrate in the feed]
b) initial mass of substrate in the reactor – final mass of substrate in the reactor + flow
rate x [substrate in the feed]
c) initial mass of substrate in the reactor + final mass of substrate in the reactor – flow
rate x [substrate in the feed]
d) initial mass of substrate in the reactor + final mass of substrate in the reactor – flow
rate
16. Which of the statement is true for continuous reactor at steady state?
a) The rates of biomass, substrate and product concentrations are zero
b) Biomass, substrate and product concentrations are zero
c) Biomass, substrate and product concentrations do not change with time
d) Biomass, substrate and product concentrations change with time
17. In a fluidized bed reactor, the function of the disengagement zone is to
a) Reduce loss of particles from the reactor
b) Reduce the velocity of the particles near the surface of the reactor
c) Reduce foaming problems
d) All of the above
18. Mechanical foam breaker is generally preferred over antifoam agents
a) True
b) False
19. A culture system with constant environmental condtions maintained through continual
provision of nutrient and removal of wastes is called ___________ culture system.
a) Continuous
b) Batch
c) Fed-batch
d) Semi continuous
20. Fed batch reactors is used to produce vinegar because
a) It can maintain low acetic acid concentrations
b) It can maintain low ethanol concentrations
c) Acetic acid bacteria tend to ferment at high ethanol concentrations
d) All of the above

UNIT 2
1.  KLa is same in between Air-lift reactors and bubble columns?
a) True
b) False
2. Which part of fermenter is used for mixing process?
a) Shaft
b) Sparger
c) Impeller
d) Headspace
3. Low dissolved oxygen concentrations leads to
a) Low biomass yields
b) High biomass yields
c) Equal biomass composition
d) No effect on biomass yields
4. For which type of mass transfer does oxygen balance method is used?
a) Gas-Gas
b) Gas-Solid
c) Gas-Liquid
d) Liquid-Liquid
5. Which of the following technique does not require the measurement of dissolved oxygen
concentrations?
a) Dynamic gassing out method
b) Static gassing out method
c) Sulphite oxidation method
d) Oxygen – Balance method
6. Which of the following does not affect KLA value?
a) Air flow rate
b) Presence of enzymes
c) Presence of antifoam agents
d) Degree of agitation
7. The rate of oxygen transfer is given by equation __________
a) dCL/dt = KLa (C*)
b) dCL/dn = KLa (CL)
c) dCL/dt = KLa (C* - CL)
d) dCL/dn = KLa (C* - CL)
8. Which of the following was used to gas out oxygen in the dynamic method of gassing out?
a) Growing culture
b) Nitrogen gas
c) Dead cells
d) Helium
9. The oxygen transfer in a bioreactor will increase if
a) Antifoam is added
 b) Oil is added
c) Increase in the reactor temperature
d) Detergent like molecules are added
10. Higher temperature affect oxygen transfer rates by
a) Lowering KLa but increasing Co*
b) Increasing KLa but lowering Co*
c) Lowering KLa and lowering Co
d) Increasing KLa and increasing Co
11. As agitation increases in an aerobic maintained bioreactor,
a) The oxygen transfer coefficient increases
b) The oxygen transfer coefficient decreases
c) The oxygen transfer coefficient is not changed
d) None of the above
12. Which is not the criteria to be followed for scaling up of a bioreactor?
a) Constant mixing quality
b) Continuous impeller tip speed
c) Constant KLa
d) Similar drop size distribution
13. Which of the following factors are not involved in the scale-up process?
a) Sterilization
b) Temperature
c) Medium design
d) Inoculum development
14. What do ‘scale-down’ means?
a) Decreasing the scale of fermentation
b) Increasing the scale of fermentation
c) Decreasing the rate of agitation
d) Increasing the rate of fermentation
15. Which of the following is not a rule while doing scale-up studies?
a) The similarity in the geometry of the fermenter used
b) The similarity in the configuration of the fermenter used
c) There should a minimum of three or four stages of increment
d) Increasing power is a jump in scale
16. What is the value of impeller Reynolds number for transitional regime in a bioreactor?
a) Above 10,000
b) Between 1000 and 10,000
c) Below 1000
d) None of the above
17. Which is used for chopping solids to smaller pieces when they enter the pump?
a) Vortex impeller
b) Semi-open impeller
c) Mixed-flow impeller
d) Shredder impeller
18. The scale up criteria for bioreactors based on power consumption is:
a) P/V = N4Di6
b) P/V = N3Di5
c) P/V = N4Di5
d) P/V = N3Di6
19. Given below is a graphical representation of the scale-up window. What do the x-axis
andy-axis denotes?

a) Y – Agitation, X – Aeration
b) Y – Aeration, X – Agitation
c) Y – KLa, X – Time
d) X – KLa, Y – Time
20. A 10,000 litre (of liquid) bioreactor contains 5 g / L of growing cells qO2 = 20 moles O2 /
(g cells hr) DT = 2 m, DI = 1 m, (6 – blade turbine agitator) x 3 blades and CL = 1 mg O2/L.
Calculate OUR.
a) 200 moles O2 / (g cells hr)
b) 250 moles O2 / (g cells hr)
c) 100 moles O2 / (g cells hr)
d) 150 moles O2 / (g cells hr)

UNIT 3
1. Which of the following reactions is used for the purpose of recycling enzymes in
bioprocesses?
a) Isomerization
b) Immobilisation
c) Polymerization
d) Phosphorylation
2. Which of the following techniques is not ideal for immobilizing cell free enzymes?
a) Physical entrapment by encapsulation
b) Covalent chemical bonding to surface carriers
c) Covalent chemical bonding by cross linking the precipitate
d) Physical bonding by flocculation
3. The factors likely to increase the rate of reaction catalysed by a surface immobilised
enzyme is
a) Continued replacement of the bulk liquid containing the substrate
b) Increased agitation of the bulk liquid containing the substrate
c) Increased concentration of the substrate in the bulk liquid
d) All of the above
4. If the fractional recovery at each step of unit operation is 0.8, the recovery after 4 step will
be
a) 0.24
b) 0.41
c) 3.23
d) 0.81
5. Which of the following cases are likely to lead to faster rates of catalysts by an enzyme
immobilised on a negatively charged support?
a) A positively charged substrate and a positively charged product
b) A negatively charged substrate and a positively charged product
c) A positively charged substrate and a negatively charged product
d) None of the above
6. An immobilised enzyme being used in a continuous plug flow reactor exhibits an
effectiveness factor ƞ of 1.2. The value of ƞ being greater than one could be apparently due to
one of the following reasons. Identify the correct reasons.
a) The enzyme follows substrate inhibited kinetics with internal pore diffusion
limitation.
b) The enzyme experiences external film diffusion limitation.
c) The immobilised enzyme is operationally unstable.
d) The enzyme follows sigmoidal kinetics.
7. Immobilized cell reactors for waste water treatment have the advantage of having/being
a) Higher cell concentration
b) More stable and prevent washout
c) Higher dilution rate before the cells washout
d) All of the above
8. The immobilization technique which may be done without the solid matrix, is
a) Cross linkage
b) Matrix entrapment
 c) Covalent binding
d) Adsorption
9. During immobilized enzymatic reaction, at steady state condition the rate of mass transfer
is
a) More than that of substrate consumption
b) Equal to that of substrate consumption
c) Less than that of substrate consumption
d) None of the above
10. If Damkolher number (NDa) >>1, the enzymatic reaction rate may be expressed as
follows (where Sb and S are the substrate concentration in bulk of solution and at the
immobilized enzyme surface, respectively. Ks is the mass transfer coefficient and a is the
surface area)
a) (-rs) = Ksa (Sb -S)
b) (-rs) = Ksa (Sb)
c) (-rs) = Ksa (S)
d) None of the above

11. If the observable thiele modulus is 10,then the immobilized system can be considered as
a) Reaction significant
b) External mass transfer significant
c) Internal mass transfer significant
d) Cannot be predicted

12. The effectiveness factor increases with the

a) Increase of the particle size
b) Decrease of the particle size
c) Decrease of diffusivity
d) All of the above

13. Functional groups of the non essential amino acids residues that are suitable for the
immobilization process are
a) Free α-, β- or γ carboxyl groups
b) α or β amino groups
c) Phenyl, hydroxyl, sulfhydryl or imidazole groups
d) All of the above

14. The immobilized enzyme produced by micro encapsulation technique provides

a) Smaller surface area
b) High amount of solvent
c) An extremely large surface area
d) Relatively smaller surface area

15. For a steady state condition, the change of substrate concentration is

a) Zero
b) 1
c) >1
d) <1
16. To measure the extent to which the reaction rate is lowered because of resistance to mass
transfer, the effectiveness factor of an immobilised enzyme, ƞ can be defined as
a) Reaction rate/rate if not slowed by diffusion
b) Rate if not slowed b diffusion/reaction rate
c) Actual reaction rate/rate if not slowed by diffusion
d) Rate if not slowed by diffusion/actual reaction rate

17. Which is not a polymer used in enzyme immobilisation?

a) Collagen
b) Alginate
c) Carrageenan
d) Kitosan

18. Which is not the method for producing immobilized enzymes with multifunctional
reagents?

a) Enzymes are adsorbed on the surface active support followed by intermolecular cross
linking
b) Functional groups are introduced on the support to react covalently with enzymes
c) Enzymes are cross linked intermolecularly
d) None of the above

19. Which of the following is not the correct answer?

a) Immobilised enzyme may show selectively altered chemical properties

b) Immobilised enzyme may show selectively altered physical properties
c) Immobilised enzyme may simulate the realistic natural environment where the
enzyme come from the cell
d) None of the above

20. The immobilized technique involving chemical method is

a) Covalent bond formation dependent

b) Non-covalent bond formation dependent
c) Ionic bond formation dependent
d) Both a and b

UNIT 4

1. Which is the genes can build a resistance against antibiotics or poisons?

a) F plasmids
b) Col plasmids
c) R plasmids
d) Virulence plasmids

2. The Ordinary Differential Equations to be used by the formula

a) dC/dt = Flow * (Cin – C)/V

b) dC/dt = Flow * (Cin – C)
 c) dC/dt = Flow * (Cout – C)/V
d) dC/dt = Flow * (Cout – C)
3. Dynamic simulation are not used to estimate or illustrate the response to change in the
process.

a) True
b) False

4. The constituents of k and g compartments of the cell in William’s Model is

a) K consists of DNA, proteins and G consists of RNA Pools of small metabolites

b) K consists of RNA Pools of small metabolites and G consists of DNA, proteins
a) K consists of RNA, proteins and G consists of DNA Pools of small metabolites
b) None of the above

5. For which model, there is no separation between the data and scheme

a) Compartmental model
b) Single cell model
c) Semi-structured model
d) None of the above

6. Which of the following is not the advantage of semi structured model?

a) It provides a flexible format for the data exchange between different types of
databases
b) The data transfer format may be portable
c) It can be helpful to view structured data as semi-strucutred
d) The schema cannot easily be changed

7. In the equation log C = log Co – Ket/2.303, what does Co stand for

a) Plasma drug concentration after 60 min of I.V injection

b) Plasma drug concentration after 15 min of I.V injection
c) Plasma drug concentration after 30 min of I.V injection
d) Plasma drug concentration immediately after I.V injection

8. Which of the following is not a category of 2 compartment model?

a) Two compartment model with elimination from the central compartment

b) Two compartment model with elimination from the peripheral compartment
c) Two compartment model with elimination from only plasma and blood
d) Two compartment model with elimination from both the compartment

9. In the given picture, the marking “a” represents the drug concentration of which
compartment?
 a) The central compartment in a two compartment model
b) A peripheral compartment in a tow compartment model
c) The central compartment in a one compartment model
d) Drug concentration of the plasma

10. What is meant by elimination half-life?

a) Time take for half of the amount of drug to get completely eliminated from only the
organs
b) Time take for half of the amount of drug to get completely eliminated from only the
blood
c) Time take for half of the amount of drug to get completely eliminated from only the
plasma
d) Time take for half of the amount of drug to get completely eliminated from the body
as well as the plasma

UNIT 5

1. On which medium are yeast plasmids transformed cells plated?

a) Luria broth
b) Agar
c) Minimal
d) Nutrient

2. For which of the following plasmids purification of a recombinant molecule from the
transformed cell can be difficult?

a) Episomal plasmids
b) Integrative plasmids
c) Bacterial plasmid
d) All plasmids

3. Which of the following is not an important signal for the E.Coli genes?
 a) Promoter
b) Terminator
c) Inducer
d) Ribosome binding site

4. What could be a possible reason for non-expression of a foreign gene in an E.coli host?

a) Recognition of expression signals

b) Non-recognition of expression signals
c) Indefinite size
d) Inefficient ligation

5. Pulsing of extra oxygen provides some advantage in overcoming the low oxygen transfer
rates for which process strategies.

a) Insect cell cultivation

b) Animal cell cultivation
c) Plant cell cultivation
d) High cell density cultivation

6. The common features of animal cell bioreactor is

a) Supply of Oxygen
b) Agitation speed is 50rpm
c) Removal of toxic products from metabolism
d) All of the above

7. Which is not the commercial serum free culture media?

a) Sf-900 II
b) SFX Insect
c) Drosophila SFM
d) Mitsuhashi and Maramorosch

8. The suspension culture cell density reaches to

a) 2-2.5 x 106 cells/ml

b) 2.5-5 x 106 cells/ml
c) 2-2.5 x 108 cells/ml
d) 2.5-5 x 108 cells/ml

9. The doubling time for insect cell lines of cell Sf 21 is

a) 18 hrs
b) 72 hrs
c) 24 hrs
d) 48 hrs

10. Which of the following is an entero bacterial plamid?

a) RPMI
b) M13
c) Lambda
d) R751