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Help with the design project? Bioreactor System Design

edited by Juan A. Asenjo andJosd C. Merchuk, Marcel Dekker, 1994. US$195.00 (xiii + 620pages) ISBN 0 8247 9002 2 A large number of books addressing the subject ofbioprocess engineering were produced in 1994, and regular readers o f Trends in Biotechnology will have noticed reviews o f a number of them. W h y the recent increase in coverage? It would appear to be in recognition of the maturity of the subject, and is a result of the increased level of knowledge that has been gained from research in this area; new books will also complement the main text on which the community has long depended - Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals byJ. E. Bailey and D. Ollis (McGraw-Hill). Bioreactor System Design, 'weighing in' at 620 pages, is one such new volume. The field ofbioprocess engineering is very diverse, requiring a knowledge of biochemistry, microbiology, chemical engineering, molecular biology and a host of other disciplines. The key to any successfi.il book on this subject is not what to include, but what to leave out. Clearly, a book with the title BioreactorSystem Design should address the design ofbioreactors, whether they are fermenters for microbial growth, animal-cell technology, or immobilized-cell or enzyme reactors. It should also

cover the engineering information that is necessary for the operation of a reactor, as well as provide an appreciation of the support sciences that are required. This book gets close to meeting these expectations, and should be a useful source of information for students of biochemical engineering who are doing design projects. The volume is multi-authored by experts who are respected in their areas of expertise, but the usual problem of multi-authored books is the lack of continuity in style; however, the editors have successfully kept a level of consistency to the text. The book is divided into three major parts that encompass 15 chapters. Following the brief overview, the first three chapters, which form the first part, look at biological selection, choice of organism, and the design of media. The major part of the book is taken up by the subsequent nine chapters on bioreactor design; these chapters are targeted at specific technologies, such as stirred-tank reactors, air-lift reactors, immobilized-cell and enzyme reactors. There are also a couple of chapters on the more-rare areas of plant-cell bioreactors and photobioreactors. Clearly, readers

High tech greenfingers Plant Cell Culture - A Practical Approach (2nd edn)

edited by R. A. Dixon and R. A. Gonzales, IRL Press, 1994. UK£25.00 (xx + 230pages) ISBN 0 19 963 402 5 The widespread use of plant cell and tissue culture techniques owes much to handy, practical texts such as the first edition of Plant Cell CultureA PracticalApproach. Consequently, it is good to see that the value of

this text has been recognized by the publishers who have comissioned a second edition. While only nine years separate the two editions, the pace o f development in this area, particularly aspects such as molecular

would select the information they required, and pass over areas that were not specifically relevant. Some of the information contained within the chapters is available elsewhere, but there are the book contains several 'gems' that are immensely helpful for design. For example, in the chapter on stirred tanks, there is a table of correlations for the masstransfer coefficient for oxygen transfer; this is an excellent starting point for students to establish which best fits the conditions they are using in their design. The final section of the book is concerned with the utihtarian side of design, with two essential chapters covering the topics of sterilization, containment and supplies - areas that are important in design. Addressing the subject of containment is timely, because design projects now include many examples of recombinant organisms, and the provision of steam, water and gases to bioreactors is not well documented elsewhere. Does this book provide all the information required for design? The answer would have to be no, but no single book ever would. However, it is a great help and, despite the fact that the price ensures that only fibraries will be able to afford a copy, I expect it will be well used, if somewhat scarce. Andrew Ison

Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, UK WClE 7JE.

biology, regeneration and micropropagation, is such that major revisions and additions have had to be incorporated. In the past, plant cell and tissue culture was perhaps too often seen as an end in itself, rather than as an enabhng technology and a tool for research into plant biology. It is the latter theme that is the focus of the second edition. In structure, the text is an interesting combination of practical advice, (containing interesting and highly useful pieces of information, that would never be published in the methods sections of some journals), review material and TIBTECHNOVEMBER1995(VOL13)

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book reviews detailed experimental protocols. The recognition that many approaches to the successful culturing of plant cells and tissues are still highly empirical is refreshing, especially when compared with the great sophistication of many o f the m o d e m techniques that are used in plant molecular biology and phytochemistry. The book opens with a good basic discussion of the cultureinitiation process, which is followed by two much updated and restructured chapters on the field of protoplast technology and applications. The melding o f molecular biology techniques with more conventional ones is particularly welcome in the second chapter on protoplasts, which also provides the sort of useful, simple, theoretical discussion that would not go amiss in more-traditional 'theory' texts. The following chapter, on the selection of plant cells for desirable characteristics, could cover a multitude of targets (and 'sins'), but the editors have sensibly chosen to restrict its scope to four areas: inhibitor resistance;

cold tolerance; salt tolerance; and disease/toxin resistance. These are used as examples of approaches to what is otherwise an extremely broad area with many potentials. Although plant regeneration through some form o f tissue culture is stiR, perhaps, something of a 'black art', it is becoming increasingly important with the development of improved or modified crop and horticultural plants. The chapter on this area in the original edition has been greatly expanded, and a very useful range of approaches is detailed. A chapter on the more-applied aspects has also been added. Despite the fact that very few plant cell culture processes for the synthesis o f natural products have been commercialized, a wealth o f information has appeared on this area in recent years. Two chapters devoted to this aspect o f cell culture cover strategies to study and improve secondary-product synthesis, and also cover practical approaches to growing cells, roots and tissues in large-scale vessels, although no particular mention is made of immobilization systems.

Adding numbers to biotechnology Bioprocess Engineering Principles

by Pauline M. Doran, Academic Press, 1995. UK~,24.95 (xiv + 439pages) I S B N 0 12 220856 0 For some time, there has been a gap on the library shelves between texts that cover the fundamental sciences that are the basis o f biotechnology, and standard chemical engineering books that deal with issues such as mass and heat transfer, unit operation selection, and process design. This is a particular problem for those wanting to understand the problems associated with the transfer o f exciting biological advances into real processes. This new text goes a long way to filling this gulf by providing the necessary quantitative bridge between the underpinning science and the enabling engineering. TIBTECHNOVEMBER1995(VOL13)

Bioprocessing Engineering Principles has been clearly targeted at an audience less familiar with mathematics and physics, although much of it is appropriate to morenumerate audiences. The book develops the appropriate skills and confidence by using well-structured examples and questions about concepts such as the use o f dimensionless groups, the formulation and testing of simple models, and the application of relatively straightforward theory to realistic bioprocessing problems. Over half of the book is devoted to establishing the foundations o f these basic principles and the mechanisms that biochemical engineers consider when analysing typical processing

The book is well presented and illustrated throughout, with a high degree o f uniformity o f presentation from the authors, for which, given the purpose o f the book, the editors must be congratulated. My only reservation regarding presentation is concerned with the various practical protocols that are provided. Quite often these span two pages, sometimes on opposite leaves, and sometimes overleaf It would have been helpful, from a practical standpoint, if these could have been contained across two open pages or better still, reduced to single pages. For the book to be really practically useful, it would have been even better to see a separate loose-leaf ring-bound section that could be propped up on the bench, and used in the way the book title imphes - maybe a thought for the third edition! All in all, this is a most useful book that is, for once, reasonably priced, and one that no plant biology laboratory should miss.

Mike W. Fowler Phyter, Regent Court, Regent Street, Sheffield, UK $1 4DA.

questions. The style is clear and well suited to self teaching, or as part o f a lecture course. The illustrations are clearly annotated and explained, and diagrams are used appropriately to amphfy points of detail. The text is divided into four main sections that introduce bioprocessing and the key concepts of engineering calculations and data handling; these cover: setting up and solving mass and energy balances for a wide range o f operations, including unsteady-state processing; the analysis o f physical processes in terms of basic rheology; heat and mass transfer and unit operations design; and a section covering the theory and specification of reactions and reactors. A comprehensive set of appendices, which covers key information such as the conversion factors and mathematical roles that are used throughout the text, is also provided. Each chapter is prefaced by a short summary that places the chapter contents in the context o f bioprocessing. This provides the