Introduction to Biochemical Engineering (ChEg3124)

Choose the best Answer!

1. An allosteric inhibitor of an enzyme usually
A. participates in feedback regulation
B. denatures the enzyme
C. is a hydrophobic compound
D. causes the enzyme to work faster
2. If a reaction occurs in the absence of inhibitor with rate ν0 and in the presence of inhibitor
with rate νi, the degree of inhibition is defined as
A. (ν0 - νi)/ν0
B. (ν0 + νi)/ν0
C. (ν0νi)/ν0
D. (ν0-νi)/νi
3. Which of the following statements is not true?
A. Enzymes are proteins that bind to specific substrates and increase the velocity of
reactions involving those substrates
B. Enzymes function by overcoming the activation energy barrier of a reaction
C. Enzymes make thermodynamically favorable reactions to proceed; they cannot make
unfavorable reactions to occur
D. Enzymes only function when they are in intact cells
4. In the fed-batch mode, substrate will be added
A. only at the beginning of the fermentation process
B. periodically throughout the fermentation process
C. only at the end of the fermentation process
D. substrate is never added
5. The active site of an enzyme remains
A. at the center of globular proteins
B. rigid and does not change shape
C. complementary to the rest of the molecule
D. none of the above
6. A classical uncompetitive inhibitor is a compound that binds
A. reversibly to the enzyme substrate complex yielding an inactive ESI complex
B. irreversibly to the enzyme substrate complex yielding an inactive ESI complex
C. reversibly to the enzyme substrate complex yielding an active ESI complex
D. irreversibly to the enzyme substrate complex yielding an active ESI complex
7. The effect of non-competitive inhibition on a Lineweaver-Burk Plot is that
A. it can move the entire curve to the right
B. it can change the y-intercept
C. it can change the x-intercept
D. all of these

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8. For an enzyme that displays Michaelis-Menten kinetics, the reaction velocity (as a fraction of
Vmax) observed at [S] = 2 KM will be
A. 0.09
B. 0.33
C. 0.66
D. 0.91
9. A typical noncompetitive inhibitor has
A. no effect on substrate binding
B. no effect on substrate binding and vice versa
C. significant effect on substrate binding
D. significant effect on substrate binding and vice versa
10. When [S] = 0.1 *KM, the velocity of an enzyme catalyzed reaction is about:
A. 0.1* Vmax
B. 0.3 * Vmax
C. 0.5 * Vmax
D. 0.7 * Vmax
11. Which of the following is taken as an assumption in the distributed model?
A. The reaction occurs at every position and the kinetics of the reaction are of the same form
as observed for free enzyme.
B. Mass transfer through the immobilized enzyme occurs via molecular diffusion
C. There is no mass transfer limitation at the outside surface of the spherical immobilized
enzyme
D. All of the above
12. The immobilization technique involving physical method is
A. covalent bond formation dependent
B. non-covalent bond formation dependent
C. both (a) and (b)
D. ionic bond formation dependent
13. To measure the extent to which the reaction rate is lowered because of resistance to mass
transfer, the effectiveness factor of an immobilized enzyme, η can be defined as
A. reaction rate/rate if not slowed by diffusion
B. rate if not slowed by diffusion/ reaction rate
C. actual reaction rate/ rate if not slowed by diffusion
D. rate if not slowed by diffusion/ actual reaction rate
14. Which of the following is considered as a disadvantage to the adsorption method of
immobilization?
A. It is possible to separate and purify the enzymes while being immobilized
B. The enzymes are not usually deactivated by adsorption
C. The adsorption is a reversible process
D. State of immobilization is very sensitive to solution pH, ionic strength and temperature

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15. If Damkohler number, NDa >>1, the reaction rate is much greater than the mass transfer rate
and the overall reaction is controlled by the rate of mass transfer. In this case, the enzyme
reaction can be described as (where Csb and Cs are the substrate concentration in bulk of
solution and at the immobilized enzyme surface respectively. ks mass transfer coefficient,
and a is the surface area of an immobilized enzyme particles)
A. rp = ksa(Csb-Cs)
B. rp = ksaCsb
C. rp = ksaCs
D. rp = ksa(Csb+Cs)
16. Which of the following mainly serve to convert starch into high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)?
A. α-amylase
B. Gluco-isomerase
C. Gluco-amylase
D. all of these
17. In a continuous reactor, the medium contains 40 g.l¹ of maltose and the medium flow rate is
10 litres per hour and the effluent contains 20 g.l¹ of lactate. What is the productivity of
lactate production from this reactor?
A. 50 g maltose.l¹
B. 50 g lactate.l¹
C. 200 g maltose.l¹
D. 200 g lactate.l¹
18. In batch culture, protogon is produced from peptone during the stationary phase with a yield
of 0.4 protogon mg per g of peptone. If it is to be produced in a chemostat at a dilution rate of
0.5 h¹ from a medium containing 10 g.l¹ of peptone, then the rate of protogon synthesis
would be
A. 0 g.l¹h¹
B. 0.5 g.l¹h¹
C. 1 g.l¹h¹
D. 2 g.l¹h¹
19. 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. 13 litre
20. The specific growth rate (μ) is defined as
A. the concentration of biomass in the reactor
B. rate of increase of total biomass in a reactor
C. the rate of individual cells division or increase in their biomass
D. the rate of cell death
21. Wash out in steady state fermentation occurs when
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 A. dilution rate is less than maximum specific growth rate
B. dilution rate is higher than the maximum specific growth rate
C. cell concentration reaches the maximum
D. specific growth rate is maximum
22. A continuous reactor at steady state contains 0.04 g.l¹ of biomass and 0.02 g.l¹ of phenol. The
feed contained 0.1 g.l¹ of phenol. The biomass yield would be
A. 0.4 g.g¹
B. 0.5 g.g¹
C. 1.0 g.g¹
D. 5.0 g.g¹
23. The growth of an organism on glucose is described by the following Monod model
parameters: μm = 0.5 h-1 and Ks =0.1 g.l-1, if the concentration of glucose in the feed is 10g.l-1
and the dilution rate is set to 0.4 h-1, then the steady state concentration of glucose in the
effluent will be
A. 0.1 g.l-1
B. 0.5 g.l-1
C. 1.0 g.l-1
D. 10 g.l-1
24. Which of the following would be correct concerning the concentration of biomass (X),
growth limiting substrate (S) and product (P) in a chemostat when the cells have been
washed out?
A. X,S and P will be zero
B. X,S and P cannot be predicted for the above condition
C. X and P will be zero while S is equal to the substrate concentration in feed
D. None of the above
25. A continuous reactor has a dilution rate of 0.5 h-1. Its residence time would be
A. ln(2)/0.5
B. ln(2) x 0.5
C. 0.5 h
D. 2 h
26. If the specific growth rate, μ. is constant with time during the exponential growth period, the
equation correlating bacterial number density Cn), cell number concentration with respect to
time can be expressed as
A. Cn= Cn0 exp[μ (t - t0)]
B. Cn0 = Cn exp[μ (t - t0)]
C. Cn/Cn0 =(1/μ)exp(t-t0)
D. Cn0 / Cn = (1/μ)exp(t-t0)

27. On a glucose medium, the growth of an organism is characterized by the following Monod
model and stoichiometric parameters μm = 0.3 h¹, Ks =0.05 g.l¹ and Yxs = 0.3 g.g-¹ When this

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 organism is grown in a 2 litre continuous on a medium containing 10 g.l¹ of glucose added at
1 l.h¹, the steady state concentration of biomass in the reactor will be
A. 0 g.l¹
B. 0.4 g.l¹
C. 0.5 g.l¹
D. 10 g.l¹
28. Sterilization can be carried out by
A. heat
B. radiation
C. chemical agents
D. all of these
29. The reduction of number of cells from 1010 to one will result into the del factor (Δ) of
A. 1
B. 10
C. 23
D. 103
30. The del factor (Δ) increases as the final number of cells
A. decreases
B. increases
C. zero
D. constant
31. The specific death rate of an organism can be expressed as
A. ln 2/D
B. D/ln2
C. D.ln2
D. 2.0.3/ln2
32. The value of K
A. increases with increase in air velocity
B. decreases with increase in air velocity
C. increases to an optimum with increase in air velocity and decreases on further increase of
air velocity
D. none of the above

33. The oxygen uptake requirements of a microbial population is characterized by the following
parameters: μm = 0.2 h-1, K0 = 0.2 mg O2.l-1, Y0 = 0.5 mg dry weight/mg O2 and C0,crit=0.8
mg.l-1 The required concentration of cells is 1000 mg.l-1 and the saturation oxygen
concentration of the medium is 5.8 mg.l-1. The required KLa must be greater than
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 A. 64 h-1
B. 32 h-1
C. 16 h-1
D. 8h-1
34. Which of the following is not considered among the three best-known theories of interphase
mass transfer?
A. two-film theory
B. penetration theory
C. surface renewal theory
D. Calderbank and Moo-Young theory
35. Which of the following is most likely to cause an increase in the rate of oxygen transfer into
a particular aerated fermentation system?
A. Addition of antifoams
B. Increase in temperature
C. Increase in stirrer speed
D. Both (a) and (b)
36. Radial flow impellers
A. provide high shear conditions for breaking up bubbles
B. direct flow towards the walls of the reactor
C. Both (a) and (b)
D. provide low shear conditions and are suited for use in shear sensitive procesess
37. Assuming the laminar flow across the filter, the rate of filtration (dVf/dt) can be expressed as
a function of pressure drop Dp by the modified D'Arcy's equation as (where A is the area of
filtering surface, K is the D'Arcy's filter cake permeability and L is the thickness of the filter
cake)
A. (1/A) dVf/dt = Δp/μ(L/K)
B. dVf/dt = (1/A)Δp/μ(L/K)
C. (1/A) dVf/dt = Δp/μ LK
D. dVf/dt = (1/A)Δp/μ LK

38. The correlation often employed to correlate adsorption data for protein is (where Ymax is the
maximum amount of solute adsorbed per mass of adsorbent, X is the mass fraction of solute
in the diluent phase in solute-free basis, KL is a constant and Y is the equilibrium value of
the mass of solute adsorbed per mass of adsorbent)
A. Y = YmaxX/(KL+X)
B. Y = Ymax/(KL+X)
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 C. Y = YmaxX/KL
D. Y = Ymax- X/ (KL+X)
39. Which of the following is considered as a pretreatment to the biological feeds?
A. Heating to denature the proteins
B. Addition of filter aids to increase the porosity
C. Addition of electrolytes
D. All of the above
40. A system which require less solvent and produces a more concentrated extract phase, is
desired with a
A. large distribution coefficients
B. small distribution coefficients
C. very small distribution coefficients
D. constant distribution coefficients

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