Internship at BioVT: explore, discover, marvel

Once again this year, BioVT offered a varied programme for Year 11 students as part of a cooperation project between the MV department and Rittersberg-Gymnasium Kaiserslautern. During their two-week internship, the young people were given a practical insight into the working world of various groups in the department.

From 13 to 14 January, five pupils were interested in the BioVT laboratories. The internship began with an introduction to the basics of bioprocess engineering. The focus was on the different types of microorganisms, the diverse areas in which they are used and how they can be cultivated. The students carried out various cultivation experiments to investigate the growth conditions of yeast, created a microbial fingerprint and built a simple photobioreactor. A tour of the BioVT laboratories allowed the trainees to marvel at impressive bioreactors and produce their own culture media.

The second day focused on analysis, with a particular emphasis on chromatography. After a brief introduction, the students were able to use chalk chromatography to visualise the different leaf dyes in green spinach and paper chromatography to examine the colour mixture of felt-tip pens. They were then asked to separate the photopigment composition of
cyanobacteria and macro- and microalgae using thin-layer chromatography. The students had previously extracted the photopigments from the cells using different solvents, which allowed them to determine a first separation of the substances. With their chromatography skills in hand, it was time for the 'freestyle': they had to determine the ethanol content of alcoholic beverages using technically challenging but practical gas chromatography - a task they successfully mastered. 

We hope that we have given the students an exciting and informative insight into the world of bioprocess engineering, and we are delighted if we have been able to spark their interest in studying Bio- and Chemical Engineering.