TEMPORARY IMMERSION BIOREACTORS: DEVELOPMENTS TOWARDS YAM PROPAGATION AND AFRICAN FOOD SECURITY
Open Access
Author:
Trauger, Marena Allison
Area of Honors:
Chemical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Wayne Roger Curtis, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Wayne Roger Curtis, Thesis Honors Advisor Stephanie Butler Velegol, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
bioreactors plant propagation mass transfer temporary immersion bioreactors plants
Abstract:
As populations world-wide are on the rise, one of the largest issues mankind will have to
face is that of food security. White yam, Dioscorea rotundata (DR) is a crop essential to the
economic and daily caloric intake of many nations across Africa. Of the crops produced, much is
not usable due to the fact that some must be saved for the next year’s plant or due to disease. One
way through which plants may be propagated in order to ensure clean, healthy planting material,
time after time, is through the use of bioreactors. This allows for conditions to be standardized
and to be grown free of infection or infestation. This work sought to discuss the use of temporary
immersion bioreactors (TIBs) run in various combinations of carbon dioxide supplementation
and media with sugar supplementation, in comparison to reactors run with air and in the absence
of sugar towards implementation with reduced issues of contamination.
