1.1 Introduction
Fermentation is a biochemical process that microorganisms use to produce various enzymes, antibiotics, and other compounds that are used in various industries for the production of energy, food processing, antibiotics, protein synthesis, hormone synthesis, and many other important industrial enzymatic processes. Nowadays, the breakdown of carbohydrates and compounds like carbohydrates under anaerobic or aerobic circumstances is referred to as fermentation. According to Augustin et al., (2023), food has been preserved and its nutritional value increased by the age-old process of fermentation (Augustin et al., 2023). As a byproduct of their own metabolic activities, bacteria that are sensitive to organic substrates undergo fermentation. The breakdown of natural materials and the eventual return of chemical components to the soil and air, which are necessary for life to exist, depend on these interactions.
This chapter will address the background information that motivated this study, the challenges that prompted it, its aim, and its objectives as a preface to subsequent sections of the study. Additional factors include the study's significance, scope, limitations, research questions and hypotheses, and the definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Since fruit ferments naturally, fermentation precedes human history. However, human began to take control of fermentation process art some points in time. There is strongest evidence that people were fermenting beverage.
In Babylon about 5000 BC, ancient Egypt about 3000BC, pre – Hispanic Mexico about 2000 BC, and Sudan about 1500 BC. There is also evidence of leavened bread in ancient Egypt about the year. 1500BC. The Chinese were probably the first to develop vegetable fermentation (Wikipedia, 2006). Fermentation has been used to make alcoholic beverage, since ancient times, people who lived along the Nile River in North east Africa brewed beer around 3000 BC. It was not until the 1800’s that scientists particularly the French scientist Louis Pasteur discover how microbes cause fermentation in beer, milk and wine (world book Encyclopedia, 1992).
In the 1900’s other types of fermentation were developed, fermentation of bacterium produced ingredients for explosive during chmist Josep Louis Gay – Lussac, demonstrated that alcoholic fermentation could be expressed by the following reaction: C6HO12O6 – 2CO2 +2C2H5OH, in which one molecule of the sugar glucose is decomposed to yield two molecule of carbon dioxide, and two molecules of ethyl alcohol. In 1837, it was independently proposed by German physiologist Theodor Schwann, the Germen botanist Friedrich Kutzing, and a French physicist Charles cagniard dela tour that alcohol fermentation on require yeast cells and is a physiological function of this organism (yeast is the common name for certain types of fungus). Beginning in 1985, the French Chemist Louis Pasteur further elucidated the fermentation process, through a series of experiments which showed that all fermentation is the result of microbial activity.
Dutch Merchant (1975) asserted that the process of fermentation involves the use of sophisticated organic catalysts called enzymes, which are manufactured by microorganisms like bacteria, yeasts, and moulds, to chemically convert organic materials into simpler chemicals. In order to form smaller (and, in the case of foods, more easily digestible) compounds and nutrients, enzymes hydrolyze complex organic molecules. For instance, the enzyme protease breaks down large protein molecules into polypeptides and peptides, which are then further broken down into numerous amino acids, which are readily assimilated by the body (Dutch Merchant, 1975).
Important byproducts like alcohol and other gases can also be created during some fermentation processes. The Latin root of the term "fermentation" means "to boil." Foods that have undergone fermentation frequently offer a number of benefits above their constituent raw ingredients. When fermentation is used on soy products, it not only increases the product's unpleasantness but also improves its flavour, texture, look, and fragrance as well as its ability to synthesise vitamins (HESSELTING and WANG, 1979). A metabolic process called fermentation happens in bacteria, yeast, and oxygen-starved muscle cells, as in the case of lactic fermentation. Fermentation transforms sugar into acids, gases, or alcohol. Additionally, a broader definition of it refers to the mass development of microorganisms on a growth medium, frequently with a good of producing a specific chemical product.
Additionally, he recognized by different micro organism, and that both fermentation and microbial growth proceeds in the absence of air. This led to his definition of fermentation as “life without air” Pasteur was also able to demonstrate that the decomposition of a given amount of sugar in the absence of air leads to much less microbial growth than the decomposition of the same amount of sugar in the presence of air (Encyclopedia America, 1998).
A more sophisticated attempt to interpret fermentation in chemical term made by the German scientist Moritz Traube, who in 1856 suggested that all fermentation was caused by “ferments” in the organism and that the ferments are related to proteins. This account prediction was supported by German chemist Richard Willstatter who isolated the enzymes invertase from yeast in the 1920s.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Economic Importance on Fermentation.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the traditional fermentation plant's capital and gross operating costs are mostly independent of the product produced. Operating expenses for fermentation can vary slightly but will often fall within a fairly small range per unit volume and per unit time. Furthermore, the intricacy of extraction and processing can vary, although they will often fall within a very small price range.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Economic Importance on Fermentation. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to:
- Identify the factors affect the economic status of fermentation processes;
- Assess the general cost considerations of fermentation industry;
- Determine how economics of a fermentation process can be assessed;
- Discuss the economics aspects of any fermentation industry; and
- Evaluate the economics of a fermentation process and the product recovery cost.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What factors affect the economic status of fermentation processes?
- What are the general cost considerations of fermentation industry?
- How economics of a fermentation process can be assessed?
- Discuss economics aspects of any fermentation industry?
- What is the economics of a fermentation process and product recovery cost?
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