IM has discussed about alternative methods for the detection of hazardous or harmful bacteria with Dr. Elias Hakalehto.
It is most important to know the pathogens which will appear in patient samples. Clinical microbiologists shall know who are the enemies of the ill people: their metabolic capabilities, antibiotic resistence patterns etc. Their overall features are easy to find from literature or internet whenever the name of the species is known. This identification can be performed by selective cultivations on agar plates or in PMEU incubator, and further tests like microscopic examinations, API ID systems, immunological tests and/or PCR can be done to confirm the basic identification.
Paper mill is definitely another challenge for microbiologist. In some (relatively rare cases) the names of microorganisms are important to know: if the product shall have high hygiene quality (like LPB and other food-grade cartonboards) or questions about bioterrorism have been arisen (spore-forming Bacillus anthracis as an example). The occurrence of Legionella pneumophila is also a risk in the waste water treatment of paper industry today. Selective cultivations, either on plates or in PMEU, are the solid solutions for continuous microbiological control in those cases. PMEU is preferred because its speed (hours, compared to days with colony count analyses).
Papermakers shall focus more on the metabolic activities than the names of bacteria which they are living with in paper mills, however. Continuous inoculation of the paper production processes by contaminants, delivered with incoming lots of starches, mineral fillers, raw water, dry pulp etc. shall be controlled to avoid spoilage (amylolytic activity as an example), biofilm and slime growth, tastes and odours, spots and colours in the product etc. Because the wide range of bacterial species and their origin from the nature itself, clinical methods do not suit very well for this monitoring. There is no time to start labourous cultivations, pure cultures and identifications when the bacterial input continues day and night, "7/24". PMEU seems to be an excellent tool to check the basic features of process populations, their biocide resistence patterns included.
One important fact must also be taken into account. There are a lot of harmful microbes which actually cannot be cultivated on agar at all. One example are certain filamentous bacteria which may cause biofilm layers into the processes. They can be cultivated in some broths, however, but the usage of the original samples as the growth medium is the best way to detect them all. This can be done with ordinary mb laboratory equipment or with PMEU incubator.
Identification of bacterial species is still needed when the mapping of contamination routes into the processes is the subject of the study. IM will discuss about the microbiological mapping in his next posts (please see http://industrymicrobiologist.blogspot.com/).
Friday, July 24, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Testing E71 photo delivery from ChemBio 09
IM wrote, "There was a certain drop in the number of visitors, speakers and companies with exhibition desks in the annual Congress "BioChem" in Helsinki, 27.-29.5.2009. It was a pity to see that a lot of paper industry-associated companies did not arrive to show their products. The depression of global economy was very easy to sense. After all: there were still active participants left, eg. the novel company SAMPLION Ltd. which is now distributing PMEU system for all areas of microbiological control."
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Latest post by "Industrial Microbiologist"
After a most busy period in May 2009, IM would like to write something (partly because his insomnia - a common symptom during light & bright Nordic summer nights) to the readers of his blog.
Several seminars for the rise of Nordic forest industry have arranged and will be arranged before Finland "will be closed" for summer holidays. - This is, by the way, a common feature of Finnish lifestyle, and easy to understand: you shall first work in dark and rain for months, the temperature drops well below 0 oC, and you should try to be active all through the winter. But when the summer comes, everybody will wake up again and "see a light at the end of a tunnel" (which was the title in the annual meeting of Finnish Paper Engineer's Association). And then, during the summer months, citizen tend to move to their summer cottages and villas to just rest and collect forces to tolerate the next winter..
Back to the topic:
There was a certain drop in the number of visitors, speakers and companies with exhibition desks in the annual Congress "BioChem" in Helsinki, 27.-29.5.2009. It was a pity to see that a lot of paper industry-associated companies did not arrive to show their products. The depression of global economy was very easy to sense. After all: there were still active participants left, eg. the novel company SAMPLION Ltd. which is now distributing PMEU system for all areas of microbiological control.
Positive attitudes were obvious also in the annual "Summer Summit" by AEL, the major education company for adult professionals, paper industry ones included.
What will happen next? A conference, discussing of future forecasts of forest industry, will be held in the middle of June in Jyväskylä, Finland. After that the annual PIRA congress will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in October.
If only the paper industry research will be activated again..It is, of course, a question of money, but, after all: to leave brilliant Finnish researchers without work is really a vast of excellence. It has be proven several times that the rebuilding of research groups after a depression is a much harder work than to start those activities from zero. It would therefore be better to keep such organisations in work over the bad periods.
IM is looking forward to the next Autumn! A most interesting thing to see what are the forecasts of Nordic P&P industry when the summer is over!
Several seminars for the rise of Nordic forest industry have arranged and will be arranged before Finland "will be closed" for summer holidays. - This is, by the way, a common feature of Finnish lifestyle, and easy to understand: you shall first work in dark and rain for months, the temperature drops well below 0 oC, and you should try to be active all through the winter. But when the summer comes, everybody will wake up again and "see a light at the end of a tunnel" (which was the title in the annual meeting of Finnish Paper Engineer's Association). And then, during the summer months, citizen tend to move to their summer cottages and villas to just rest and collect forces to tolerate the next winter..
Back to the topic:
There was a certain drop in the number of visitors, speakers and companies with exhibition desks in the annual Congress "BioChem" in Helsinki, 27.-29.5.2009. It was a pity to see that a lot of paper industry-associated companies did not arrive to show their products. The depression of global economy was very easy to sense. After all: there were still active participants left, eg. the novel company SAMPLION Ltd. which is now distributing PMEU system for all areas of microbiological control.
Positive attitudes were obvious also in the annual "Summer Summit" by AEL, the major education company for adult professionals, paper industry ones included.
What will happen next? A conference, discussing of future forecasts of forest industry, will be held in the middle of June in Jyväskylä, Finland. After that the annual PIRA congress will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in October.
If only the paper industry research will be activated again..It is, of course, a question of money, but, after all: to leave brilliant Finnish researchers without work is really a vast of excellence. It has be proven several times that the rebuilding of research groups after a depression is a much harder work than to start those activities from zero. It would therefore be better to keep such organisations in work over the bad periods.
IM is looking forward to the next Autumn! A most interesting thing to see what are the forecasts of Nordic P&P industry when the summer is over!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Local Harvest / Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSA / Organic Food
Local Harvest / Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSA / Organic Food: "The best organic food is what's grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies. Want to support this great web site? Shop in our catalog for things you can't find locally!"
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The future of P&P industry?
IM is wondering, what will the future of P&P be like.
Referring his ideas, five major topics are needed:
1 PRODUCT: you shall have some product which is really needed among customers. An example: LPB (everybody will buy milk and juice in carton packages every day during her/his lifetime).
2 PERSONNEL: persons on all levels of the company, interested to sell good products.
3 MARKET: the only question: are the customers well aware about your product? If not, why?
4 RESEARCH: R&D in P&P is not a region of "sunset". A lot can be done to improve the quality of products, production etc. It would be possible to find even new products: why not to sell motor oil in LPB containers?
5 DEVELOPMENT. This is the most difficult issue. R&D is interested to develop new ideas but the economists do not see any forecasts for the innovations - why?
- O.K. IM is just a microbiologist and do not understand the global economy. He is still asking, however: where is the development and optimistic forecasts in P&P industry?
IM will also ask: are the Asian people more enthusiastic to develop P&P industry? Not only economically but also in their minds?
POSTED BY JUHA V. MENTU AT 11:01 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: CHINA GLOBAL, DEVELOPMENT, MARKET, PERSONNEL, PRODUCT, RESEARCH
Referring his ideas, five major topics are needed:
1 PRODUCT: you shall have some product which is really needed among customers. An example: LPB (everybody will buy milk and juice in carton packages every day during her/his lifetime).
2 PERSONNEL: persons on all levels of the company, interested to sell good products.
3 MARKET: the only question: are the customers well aware about your product? If not, why?
4 RESEARCH: R&D in P&P is not a region of "sunset". A lot can be done to improve the quality of products, production etc. It would be possible to find even new products: why not to sell motor oil in LPB containers?
5 DEVELOPMENT. This is the most difficult issue. R&D is interested to develop new ideas but the economists do not see any forecasts for the innovations - why?
- O.K. IM is just a microbiologist and do not understand the global economy. He is still asking, however: where is the development and optimistic forecasts in P&P industry?
IM will also ask: are the Asian people more enthusiastic to develop P&P industry? Not only economically but also in their minds?
POSTED BY JUHA V. MENTU AT 11:01 AM 0 COMMENTS
LABELS: CHINA GLOBAL, DEVELOPMENT, MARKET, PERSONNEL, PRODUCT, RESEARCH
Monday, February 9, 2009
Challenges of Biotech
IM will refer the excellent book "The Biotech Investor" by Tom Abate (Owl Books, 2003, New York) again. IM also tries to reserve his time to read it through, no matter it is a dense collection of biotech and marketing facts.
In the preface of this book Tom Abate says:
"Biotechnology is an experimental field. Only a handful of of biotech companies currently have products on the market. The vast majority of biotech firms run at a loss during long developmental cycles aimed at proving their founding thesis. Experiments take time, and they often fail. Even when experiments have been done, and their results analyzed and presented at scientific meetings, biotech medicines undergo an excruciating process of regulatory review the can lead to approval, rejection or demands for more testing...In biotech time, development horizons strech for years, even decades."
This is familiar for every modern biotech researchers. Dr. Abate refers medicine research but relatively similar problems may arise when a novel microbiological analyse method is the subject of the research. Approval is then depending not on the health of the customers but the potential markets (IM's opinion). IM still thinks that such a development task can be fulfilled in only years, but marketing may be a challenging task, indeed.
Contacts between paper industry personnel and biotech researchers shall be developed. There are other alternatives than the traditional fairs and exhibitions: discussions in Internet blogs, nings etc. would help significantly to present all modern microbiological tools and evaluate their use in paper industry microbiology. Unfortunately the main problem, time, still stays, even gets worser: people tend to be in a hurry in their working life today. To reserve a period, even short, to investigate new methods will still be worth to do!
In the preface of this book Tom Abate says:
"Biotechnology is an experimental field. Only a handful of of biotech companies currently have products on the market. The vast majority of biotech firms run at a loss during long developmental cycles aimed at proving their founding thesis. Experiments take time, and they often fail. Even when experiments have been done, and their results analyzed and presented at scientific meetings, biotech medicines undergo an excruciating process of regulatory review the can lead to approval, rejection or demands for more testing...In biotech time, development horizons strech for years, even decades."
This is familiar for every modern biotech researchers. Dr. Abate refers medicine research but relatively similar problems may arise when a novel microbiological analyse method is the subject of the research. Approval is then depending not on the health of the customers but the potential markets (IM's opinion). IM still thinks that such a development task can be fulfilled in only years, but marketing may be a challenging task, indeed.
Contacts between paper industry personnel and biotech researchers shall be developed. There are other alternatives than the traditional fairs and exhibitions: discussions in Internet blogs, nings etc. would help significantly to present all modern microbiological tools and evaluate their use in paper industry microbiology. Unfortunately the main problem, time, still stays, even gets worser: people tend to be in a hurry in their working life today. To reserve a period, even short, to investigate new methods will still be worth to do!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The need of paper industry biocides: alternative prospects.
IM is wondering: are there any other sector of process industry, where microbes are allowed to grow like in paper industry?
Biotechnological processes, of course. But their populations are carefully selected and controlled. And they are employers of the company, not criminals trying to cause harm to the company.
Some significant changes in paper industry processes have taken place after the rise of active environmental care. Both the closure of water circulation and the cancelling of biocides having mercury as an active incredient are favorable for the environment, of course. But the microbial growth inside the paper machines has activated at the same time.
The beginning of neutral paper production led to an "ecocatastrophe" inside paper machines. The rise of pH value (as well as the rise of temperature, caused by the extended recirculation of water) was fatal for slow, acid-loving fungal growth. New mineral additives are an important source of certain types of bacteria, causing severe problems like production of slime, spoiling of the process compounds and hygiene faults of the products.
IM has published an article "Paper Machine: an Ecosystem and a Bioreactor" (INOCULA 1/2007. Helsinki, Finland). Many readers agree: paper machines offer ecological niches for bacteria, and the controlled environments of wet end circulations are very much similar with those of biotechnical processes, based on chemostatic fermentors.
A lot could be do to make paper machines more unfavorable growth environment for microbial contaminants. Very good results have been achieved in some projects where ecological aspects have been taken into account. These issues will be discussed later in this blog.
But the main question is: how much biocides we still need to control the microbial growth in all regions of a paper machine?
Incoming raw materials, sorry to say, may be very contaminated: the highest value of total count during IM's career has been over 100 000 000 cfu/g in a mineral slurry (which was fortunately replaced by a fresh lot by the supplier!). It is therefore obvious that a continuous control - both analytical and practical - is needed for starches, mineral pigments and other contaminated raw materials. This does not mean that all lots are spoiled: there are suppliers which know their response to deliver pure products to the mills but all kind of errors in biocidic pre-treatment, transport and storage of these products may happen.
Certain sites of paper machines also need biocidic treatments all the time. Chosing proper solutions for biocide programs (type of biocide, active compound, dosing sites, timing etc.) of a paper machine is a challenging tasks. In best cases, both the paper mill and biocide personnel are sitting down and discussing of the individual problems of the paper process hygiene.
When specified laboratory services, having tools like PMEU and biofilm microscopy, are included, the final result can be optimal one. Paper industry microbiologists can also help significantly by declaring the effects of process parameters on the growth of planktonic and biofilm bacteria.
The more competence is included, the better solution will be find.
Biotechnological processes, of course. But their populations are carefully selected and controlled. And they are employers of the company, not criminals trying to cause harm to the company.
Some significant changes in paper industry processes have taken place after the rise of active environmental care. Both the closure of water circulation and the cancelling of biocides having mercury as an active incredient are favorable for the environment, of course. But the microbial growth inside the paper machines has activated at the same time.
The beginning of neutral paper production led to an "ecocatastrophe" inside paper machines. The rise of pH value (as well as the rise of temperature, caused by the extended recirculation of water) was fatal for slow, acid-loving fungal growth. New mineral additives are an important source of certain types of bacteria, causing severe problems like production of slime, spoiling of the process compounds and hygiene faults of the products.
IM has published an article "Paper Machine: an Ecosystem and a Bioreactor" (INOCULA 1/2007. Helsinki, Finland). Many readers agree: paper machines offer ecological niches for bacteria, and the controlled environments of wet end circulations are very much similar with those of biotechnical processes, based on chemostatic fermentors.
A lot could be do to make paper machines more unfavorable growth environment for microbial contaminants. Very good results have been achieved in some projects where ecological aspects have been taken into account. These issues will be discussed later in this blog.
But the main question is: how much biocides we still need to control the microbial growth in all regions of a paper machine?
Incoming raw materials, sorry to say, may be very contaminated: the highest value of total count during IM's career has been over 100 000 000 cfu/g in a mineral slurry (which was fortunately replaced by a fresh lot by the supplier!). It is therefore obvious that a continuous control - both analytical and practical - is needed for starches, mineral pigments and other contaminated raw materials. This does not mean that all lots are spoiled: there are suppliers which know their response to deliver pure products to the mills but all kind of errors in biocidic pre-treatment, transport and storage of these products may happen.
Certain sites of paper machines also need biocidic treatments all the time. Chosing proper solutions for biocide programs (type of biocide, active compound, dosing sites, timing etc.) of a paper machine is a challenging tasks. In best cases, both the paper mill and biocide personnel are sitting down and discussing of the individual problems of the paper process hygiene.
When specified laboratory services, having tools like PMEU and biofilm microscopy, are included, the final result can be optimal one. Paper industry microbiologists can also help significantly by declaring the effects of process parameters on the growth of planktonic and biofilm bacteria.
The more competence is included, the better solution will be find.
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