Publications by Urs von Stockar

Optimal energy dissipation in growing microorganisms and rectification columns

This paper proposes a new point of view in analyzing the optimal Gibbs energy dissipation in growing microorganisms. Small Gibbs energy dissipation in growth would be of biological advantage because less resource is consumed and the biomass yield on these ...

De Gruyter2014

The role of thermodynamics in biochemical engineering

Urs von Stockar

This article is an adapted version of the introductory chapter of a book whose publication is imminent. It bears the title "Biothermodynamics - The role of thermodynamics in biochemical engineering." The aim of the paper is to give a very short overview of ...

De Gruyter2013

Calorimetry and thermodynamic aspects of heterotrophic, mixotrophic, and phototrophic growth

Urs von Stockar, Ian William Marison

A simple stoichiometric model is proposed linking the biomass yield to the enthalpy and Gibbs energy changes in chemo-heterotrophic, mixotrophic, and photo-autotrophic microbial growth. A comparison with calorimetric experiments on the algae Chlorella vulg ...

2011

Biothermodynamics of live cells: a tool for biotechnology and biochemical engineering

Urs von Stockar

The aim of this contribution is to review the application of thermodynamics to live cultures of microbial and other cells and to explore to what extent this may be put to practical use. A major focus is on energy dissipation effects in industrially relevan ...

De Gruyter2010

Removal of pharmaceuticals from water: Using liquid-core microcapsules as a novel approach

Urs von Stockar, Ian William Marison

In recent years ever-increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals are being detected in the aquatic environment and in some cases, they have even been discovered in drinking water. Their presence is attributed mainly to the inability of sewage treatment plants to ...

2010

Data Reconciliation of Concentration Estimates from Mid-Infrared and Dielectric Spectral Measurements for Improved On-Line Monitoring of Bioprocesses

Dominique Bonvin, Urs von Stockar, Ian William Marison, Michael Amrhein, Michal Dabros

Real-time data reconciliation of concentration estimates of process analytes and biomass in microbial fermentations is investigated. A Fourier-transform mid-infrared spectrometer predicting the concentrations of process metabolites is used in parallel with ...

2009

Cole-Cole, linear and multivariate modeling of capacitance data for on-line monitoring of biomass

Urs von Stockar, Ian William Marison, Michal Dabros, Danielle Dennewald

This work evaluates three techniques of calibrating capacitance (dielectric) spectrometers used for on-line monitoring of biomass: modeling of cell properties using the theoretical Cole-Cole equation, linear regression of dual-frequency capacitance measure ...

Springer-Verlag2009

Influence of Uncertainties in pH, pMg, Activity Coefficients, Metabolite Concentrations, and Other Factors on the Analysis of the Thermodynamic Feasibility of Metabolic Pathways

Urs von Stockar

Thermodynamic feasibility analysis (TFA) has been used as a toot capable of providing additional constraints to the mass balance-based methods of analysis of Metabolic networks (e.g., flux balance analysis). Several publications have recently appeared in w ...

2009

Can microbial growth yield be estimated using simple thermodynamic analogies to technical processes?

Urs von Stockar

In view of the prime importance of the biomass yield in microbial growth for research, for environmental and for industrial applications some thermodynamic concepts are reviewed that were developed over the years in order to understand the large variations ...

2008

Influence of specific growth rate on specific productivity and glycosylation of a recombinant avidin produced by a Pichia pastoris Mut(+) strain

Urs von Stockar, Ian William Marison, Jonas Schenk, Carmen Jungo, Julien Urfer, Carole Wegmann, Krisztina Balàzs

A recombinant avidin-producing Mut(+) Pichia pastoris strain was used as a model organism to study the influence of the methanol feeding strategy on the specific product productivity (q(p)) and protein glycosylation. Fed-batch cultivations performed at var ...

2008