Bioessense

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Introducing "BioESSense" For cleaner, fresher tasting food.If you are involved in the processing and cleansing of raw vegetables and leaf salads, then our product may improve the flavour, shelf-life and appeal of your product whilst being environmentally friendly.
The fresh fruit and vegetable sector is an extremely important commercial activity for the UK food industry and one of the most critical issues facing manufacturers and retailers is the issue of decontamination. As the sources of supply of raw materials become increasingly international with demand for more exotic fruits and vegetables, so the potential for contamination with pathogens and infectious agents increases. Whilst the majority of the industry currently uses chlorine in one form or another, its effectiveness is questionable. What is apparent is the increasing level of concern over the long-term future for chlorine in fruit and vegetable washing.
"BioEssence" is an antibacterial organic acid used in the food processing industry for washing leaf salads, vegetables, root crops and fruit which is used to control shelf-life by destroying surface bacteria and coliforms. Tradition methods of cleansing raw vegetables and leaf salads have tended in the past to rely on using chlorinated water. However, the use of chlorinated water is now becoming outdated, mainly due to the following reasons;

"BioEssence" is an organic acid which has proved itself as an antibac product for use in cleansing raw vegetables, leaf salads, fruits and root crops, by destroying the surface bacteria and offers the following advantages; 1 - It is odourless and tasteless, leaving the product with a more wholesome appeal.2 - It does not degrade to the same extent as chlorinated water.3 - Much healthier for workers.4 - It breaks down the "Bubble" of certain types of surface bacteria, and eliminates them.5 - It is kinder to the environment, and can be disposed of into water systems with no adverse effect on wildlife.6 - Effectively extends the shelf-life of fresh products by vastly reducing the numbers of coliforms, virus and bacteria.


Results for Biochemical engineering
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Sci-Tech Dictionary:
biochemical engineering
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(′bī·ō¦kem·i·kəl ′en·jə′nir·iŋ)
(biochemistry) The application of chemical engineering principles to conceive, design, develop, operate, or utilize processes and products based on biological and biochemical phenomena; this field is included in a wide range of industries, such as health care, agriculture, food, enzymes, chemicals, waste treatment, and energy.
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Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Biochemical engineering
The application of engineering principles to conceive, design, develop, operate, or use processes and products based on biological and biochemical phenomena. Biochemical engineering, a subset of chemical engineering, impacts a broad range of industries, including health care, agriculture, food, enzymes, chemicals, waste treatment, and energy. Historically, biochemical engineering has been distinguished from biomedical engineering by its emphasis on biochemistry and microbiology and by the lack of a health care focus. However, now there is increasing participation of biochemical engineers in the direct development of health care products. Biochemical engineering has been central to the development of the biotechnology industry, especially with the need to generate prospective products (often using genetically engineered microorganisms) on scales sufficient for testing, regulatory evaluation, and subsequent sale.
In the discipline's initial stages, biochemical engineers were chiefly concerned with optimizing the growth of microorganisms under aerobic conditions at scales of up to thousands of liters. While the scope of the discipline has expanded, this focus remains. Often the aim is the development of an economical process to maximize biomass production (and hence a particular chemical, biochemical, or protein), taking into consideration raw-material and other operating costs. The elemental constituents of biomass (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and to a lesser extent phosphorus, sulfur, mineral salts, and trace amounts of certain metals) are added to the biological reactor (often called a fermentor) and consumed by the bacteria as they reproduce and carry out metabolic processes. Sufficient amounts of oxygen (usually supplied as sterile air) are added to the fermentor in such a way as to promote its availability to the growing culture. See also Biomass; Chemical reactor; Transport processes.
In some situations, microorganisms may be cultivated whose activity is adversely affected by the presence of dissolved oxygen. Anaerobic cultures are typical of fermentations in which organic acids and solvents are produced; these systems are usually characterized by slower growth rates and lower biomass yields. The largest application of anaerobic microorganisms is in waste treatment, where anaerobic digesters containing mixed communities of anaerobic microorganisms are used to reduce the quantity of solids in industrial and municipal wastes.
While the operation and optimization of large-scale, aerobic cultures of microorganisms is still of major importance in biochemical engineering, the capability of cultivating a wide range of cell types has become important also. Biochemical engineers are often involved in the culture of plant cells, insect cells, and mammalian cells, as well as the genetically engineered versions of these cell types. Metabolic engineering uses the tools of molecular genetics, often coupled with quantitative models of metabolic pathways and bioreactor operation, to optimize cellular function for the production of specific metabolites and proteins. Enzyme engineering focuses on the identification, design, and use of biocatalysts for the production of useful chemicals and biochemicals. Tissue engineering involves material, biochemical, and medical aspects related to the transplant of living cells to treat diseases. Biochemical engineers are also actively involved in many aspects of bioremediation, immunotechnology, vaccine development, and the use of cells and enzymes capable of functioning in extreme environments.
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Wikipedia: Biochemical engineering
Biochemical engineering is a branch of chemical engineering that mainly deals with the design and construction of unit processes that involve biological organisms or molecules. Biochemical engineering is often taught as a supplementary option to chemical engineering due to the similarities in both the background subject curriculum and problem-solving techniques used by both professions. Its applications are used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and water treatment industries.

The bioreactor
A bioreactor may refer to any device or system that supports a biologically active environment.[1] In one case, a bioreactor is a vessel in which is carried out a chemical process which involves organisms or biochemically active substances derived from such organisms. This process can either be aerobic or anaerobic. These bioreactors are commonly cylindrical, ranging in size from liters to cube meters, and are often made of stainless steel....
A bioreactor may also refer to a device or system meant to grow cells or tissues in the context of cell culture. These devices are being developed for use in tissue engineering.
On the basis of mode of operation, a bioreactor may be classified as batch, fed batch or continuous (e.g. Continuous stirred-tank reactor model). An example of a bioreactor is the chemostat.
Organisms growing in bioreactors may be suspended or immobilized . The simplest, where cells are immobilized, is a Petri dish with agar gel. Large scale immobilized cell bioreactors are:
packed bed
fibrous bed
membrane

Bioreactor design
Bioreactor design is quite a complex engineering task. Under optimum conditions the microorganisms or cells are able to perform their desired function with great efficiency. The bioreactor's environmental conditions like gas (i.e., air, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide) flowrates, temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen levels, and agitation speed/circulation rate need to be closely monitored and controlled.
Most industrial bioreactor manufacturers use vessels, sensors, controllers, and a control system, networked together for their bioreactor system, see programmable logic controller (PLC).
Fouling can harm the overall sterility and efficiency of the bioreactor, especially the heat exchangers. To avoid it the bioreactor must be easily cleanable and must be as smooth as possible (therefore the round shape).
A heat exchanger is needed to maintain the bioprocess at a constant temperature. Biological fermentation is a major source of heat, therefore in most cases bioreactors need water refrigeration. They can be refrigerated with an external jacket or, for very large vessels, with internal coils.
In an aerobic process, optimal oxygen transfer is perhaps the most difficult task to accomplish. Oxygen is poorly soluble in water -and even less in fermentation broths- and is relatively scarce in air (20.8%). Oxygen transfer is usually helped by agitation, that is also needed to mix nutrients and to keep the fermentation homogeneous. There are however limits to the speed of agitation, due both to high power consumption (which is proportional to the cube of the speed of the electric motor) and the damage to organisms due to excessive tip speed causing shear stress.
Industrial bioreactors usually employ bacteria or other simple organisms that can withstand the forces of agitation. They are also simple to sustain, requiring only simple nutrient solutions and can grow at astounding rates.
In bioreactors where the goal is grow cells or tissues for experimental or therapeutic purposes, the design is significantly different from industrial bioreactors. Many cells and tissues, especially mammalian, must have a surface or other structural support in order to grow, and agitated environments are often destructive to these cell types and tissues. Higher organisms also need more complex growth medium.

NASA tissue cloning bioreactor
NASA has developed a new type of bioreactor that artificially grows tissue in cell cultures. NASA's tissue bioreactor can grow heart tissue, skeletal tissue, ligaments, cancer tissue for study, and other types of tissue.[1]
For more information on artificial tissue culture, see tissue engineering.

See also
septic tank
cell culture
Biological hydrogen production (Algae)
Tissue Engineering

References
^ International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. "bioreactor". Compendium of Chemical Terminology Internet edition.
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Research in Chemical Engineering
Purdue Research Expertise DatabaseTo find Purdue faculty who are active in in a wide variety of research areas, please visit the Purdue University Research Expertise database (PURE). The database can be searched by keyword or browsed by fields of study.

Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering Biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, bioreactor design and operation, purification of biological molecules, biomolecular engineering.
Polymers and Materials Polymerization kinetics, reactor analysis, investigations of viscoelastic properties and rheological behavior, micellar structure of block copolymers.
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Metallic nanoclusters, nanoparticle synthesis, nanoporous and nanostructured materials, molecular electronics, thermoelectric and solar devices, fuel cells, nanoscale biosensers.
Surface Science and Reaction Engineering Heterogeneous catalysis, ab initio simulation and computational catalysis, surface science and kinetics, multiphase reactor performance.
Molecular and Nanoscale Modeling Theory and modeling of colloidal systems and interfacial phenomena, molecular modeling of nanoscale systems, and computational catalysis, surface science.
Fluid Mechanics and Interfacial Phenomena Surfactant equilibrium and dynamic adsorption, design of oriented ultrathin films, droplet break-up and coalescence, computational fluid dynamics, gas-solid flows.
Product and Process Systems Engineering Statistical process monitoring and control, supply chain planning and optimization, risk assessment, product design and discovery informatics, systems biology.
Mass Transport and Separations Recovery of biochemicals, protein adsorption, adsorption and ion exchange in fixed beds and fluidized beds, complex ion exchange systems, novel fixed-bed processes.

Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Focus
Biochemical engineering is the application of biological organisms for the production of chemicals. Included within this field are the areas of biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, bioreactor design and operation, and purification of biological molecules. A few examples of the great diversity of biologically derived products are vitamins, antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, ethanol and therapeutic proteins. The field is highly interdisciplinary, relying on principles of biochemistry, microbiology, cell biology and core areas of chemical engineering including reaction kinetics, separations, and mass transfer. State of the art fermentation equipment and molecular biology tools are utilized to investigate biochemical processes at a detailed level to understand the factors that can be manipulated to improve bioprocesses. Biomolecular engineering is interested in studying and manipulating individual biomolecules such as proteins or membranes. Conceptually, it relies on biophysics and interfacial phenomena.
Metabolic Engineering
Metabolic engineering is a field focused on manipulating metabolic pathways with recombinant DNA technology. Metabolic engineering is principally concerned with understanding the regulation of metabolic systems as a whole. Applications of metabolic engineering include the overproduction of valuable metabolites, remediation of environmental contaminants and improvement of whole cell properties. Dr. Morgan's group is involved in the quantification of 'metabolic flux'
Dr. Ramkrishna's group is active in research related to metabolic engineering. The first is the cybernetic modeling of biological systems in which metabolic regulation is described by postulating that regulation is the consequence of internal goals of the organism, which are met by optimal allocation of internal resources. Earlier successes with cybernetic models included varying uptake patterns of mixed substrates in bioreactors, and multiple steady state phenomena in continuous mammalian cell cultures. A full-blown effort is under way to expand the cybernetic framework to model large metabolic systems with the full complement of regulatory processes to address problems in metabolic engineering, utilization of genomic data to predict metabolic flux distribution patterns. This research in metabolic engineering is a collaborative effort with Professor Konopka of Biological Sciences and Professor Morgan of Chemical Engineering.
Biocatalysis
Biocatalysis is the application of whole cells or isolated enzymes to perform chemical reactions. The principal advantage of biocatalysts is their ability to catalyze stereospecific reactions that are often difficult to perform with traditional chemical synthesis. Furthermore, biocatalysts have the advantage of operating under mild conditions, typically at ambient temperature and pressure in aqueous solution. However, enzymes are not limited to function in aqueous solutions. Recent developments in the field have shown that enzymes possess significant activity in non-natural environments such as in organic solvents. The evolution of biocatalysts for specific applications is being driven by the technologies of random mutagenesis and gene shuffling combined with high-throughput screening. Dr. Morgan's research group is interested in the application of plant cytochrome P450s in synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. His group is developing high-throughput screening methods to assay altered enzyme activity, stability and substrate specificity.
Interfacial Engineering
Pulmonary or lung surfactant is a lipid/protein mixture which helps stabilize the lungs by reducing the surface tension at the air/water interface of the alveoli. It has been generally accepted that DPPC (dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine) is the main lipid component responsible for producing low dynamic surface tensions in vivo, but it is too slow to adsorb when alone. Blood serum proteins, such as albumin or fibrinogen, may leak into the lung alveoli due to lung disease or injury and may interfere with the ability of the lung surfactant to lower surface tension. The Franses research group is studying the thermodynamics and dynamics of lipid/protein interactions at the interface and in the bulk. We use tensiometry, ellipsometry, IR spectroscopy, and other methods, along with theoretical modeling. We aim at devising alternative lung surfactant replacement formulations that have the ability to produce effective dynamic surface tension behavior and to exclude inhibitory serum proteins from the surface. We have developed guidelines for screening and selecting formulations, and have produced promising formulations with favorable physicochemical and biophysical properties. Professor Gil Lee's group works in the area of interfacial chemical engineering as it applies to biology and biotechnology. In specific, Professor Lee is interested in characterizing and controlling physical and chemical processes at biological interfaces at the nanometer scale. He has been involved in pioneering the use of microfabricated transducers for the measurement of force in individual macromolecules and applied this technique to the characterization of specific molecular interaction, e.g., complementary strands of DNA and model ligand-receptor systems. Single Molecule Force Measurements for Screening Drug Candidates. The atomic force microscope (AFM) and magnetic tweezers have used to measure the inter- and intramolecular forces between individual ligand-receptor pairs. The advantage of a single molecule approach, over conventional thermodynamic tools, is that a specific portion of a complex macromolecule (or assembly) can be studied with ultra-high force and spatial resolution. In specific, molecular interactions are being studied in DNA, protein and lipid bilayer systems. A microfabricated array of probes has also been developed that makes it possible to use AFM to screen forces in ligand-receptor arrays used in pharmaceutical research. Microfabricated Biosensors. The insight gained from the single molecule measurement is being used to develop new molecular amplification schemes for biological sensing. In specific, a force differentiation assay has been developed that uses the inherent binding energy of an antibody or oligonucleotide to enhance the specificity and sensitivity of an assay. Force and optical detectors are being developed to produce sensitive, rapid, and reliable biosensors.
Bioseparations
Separation technologies have a major impact on manufacturing costs in chemical, biochemical, food, biomedical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries. Our research aims to gain fundamental understanding and develop new separation technologies to increase efficiency and reduce cost. In specific, we have developed new simulated moving bed technologies for the purification of complex mixtures. These technologies are expected to reduce significantly the purification cost of many biochemicals and pharmaceuticals. Dr. Wang's Bioseparations group pioneered the Standing Wave Design and Optimization Method, which allow quick identification of optimal design and operating conditions. We also developed dynamic computer simulations to understand complex wave migration phenomena and to explore innovative designs. We have also designed and constructed innovative equipment for multi-component purification. These core technologies have been successfully used to develop new processes for the purification of insulin, antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, and antiviral drugs. We are also developing new processes for the isolation of sugars from biomass hydrolysate. The recovered sugars can be fermented to produce ethanol (clean fuel) and other fine chemicals.
Bioinformatics
Dr. Morgan's group is reconstructing metabolic pathways from genomic databases. Once constructed the pathways are evaluated for maximal theoretical yield of specific metabolites. This allows investigators to select the best organism and pathway to overproduce molecules of interest. Of particular interest are pathways related to central carbon metabolism in photosynthetic bacteria, algae and plants. Future modeling efforts will be devoted to experimental and kinetic analysis of these pathways. Dr. Ramkrishna's group is developing models of cell death in apoptosis and necrosis designed for applications to cancer diagnosis, drug evaluation, and treatment. Population balance models are formulated for identification with cytometric data in a collaborative effort with Paul Robinson of the Purdue Cytometry Center, and Dr. Robert Hanneman of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.
BiosensorsProf. Beaudoin’s group is involved in the development of optical fiber-based sensors that use surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to monitor immunoassays. These sensors are being developed for rapid, definitive diagnosis of heart attack, cerebral stroke, and meningitis. The excitement about these sensors is their ability to perform highly sensitive (~ng/ml resolution) quantitative sensing in real time (~3-5 minutes). In the case of heart attack, emergency room EKG testing is nondiagnostic ~50% of the time. In such cases, patients with suspected heart attack provide a blood sample that goes to a hospital lab for evaluation of protein markers of cardiac muscle cell death. This evaluation can take anywhere from 2-8 hours, depending on the hospital. During the interim period, therapy is not applied. These sensors would allow the same blood testing to be performed at the bedside in less than 5 minutes, dramatically improving patient care. In addition to the applications mentioned above, the probes are being considered for use in studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, for studying the healing of large area wounds, and for sensing biowarfare agents in military and civilian environments. The Beaudoin team contributes to this project by engineering microfabricated thin film polymer housings that shield the probe sensors from deleterious interactions with cells and other species in the sampled fluid or in the bloodstream. Soft lithography is used to fabricate the housings and they are treated with microwave plasma to create amine groups on their surface. These groups are binding sites for the immobilization of low bioactivity species. A custom microwave plasma reactor is used for the treatment of the housings, and we use semiconductor-style photolithography approaches for the soft lithography. We also use Rutherford backscattering (RBS), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR) to evaluate the extent and nature of the surface modifications during the plasma treatment. Ongoing efforts are focused on the development of optimal configurations of the surface coatings to minimize biological fouling of the housings.

Polymers and Materials

Research Focus
Polymer research ranges from investigations of the physical chemistry and structure of polymers to studies of polymerization kinetics and reactor analysis to investigations of viscoelastic properties and rheological behavior during polymer processing. The experimental facilities for this research include the Polymer Science and Engineering Laboratory and the Polymer Rheology Laboratory. These laboratories include facilities for thermal analysis of polymers (differential scanning calorimeter, thermomechanical analyzer, dynamic mechanical analyzer, and thermogravimetric analyzer); chromatographic systems such as HPLC, GC, and gel permeation chromatography; and instruments to support diffusion studies such as dissolution apparatus, electromicrobalance, gas permeability unit, quasi-elastic laser light scattering equipment, interferometer, and polariscope apparatus. Additional equipment includes a solid state NMR unit, an FTIR spectrophotometer, particle-size determination apparatus such as a Coulter counter, mercury porosimeter, dynamic viscoelastometers, bioadhesion equipment, solution evaluation facilities such as a UV spectrophotometer, various polymerization reaction vessels, as well as computer interface equipment for data collection, a rotary rheometer, a capillary rheometer, a rheogoniometer, tensile testing instrument, overhead loaded creep apparatus, and various molecular weight characterization instruments.
Ultrathin polymer films for membranes and optical applications are produced by spin-coating and Langmuir-Blodgett methods.
Polymer dynamics and polymer surfaces are also studied with a state-of-the-art laser facility, with linear and nonlinear techniques.
Electronic Materials and Biomaterials
The Beaudoin research group is focused on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), which is an essential technology in the assembly of thin film materials during integrated circuit manufacture. We have a state-of-the-art research-grade Logitech CDP polishing apparatus that allows us to perform focused experimental studies on the science and engineering of wafer polishing of existing and newly-developed thin film materials.
We enjoy collaborations with Sandia National Laboratories and a number of semiconductor companies, including Texas Instruments, Cabot Microelectronics, Novellus, and Rodel. Wafer polishing is incredibly complex, involving chemical and mechanical interactions between wafer surfaces and abrasive polishing slurry particles and polishing pads, as well as chemical transformations occurring on these materials throughout the polishing process. We work on the development of integrated multi-scale polishing models that traverse length scales from the wafer scale (~8 inch) to the feature scale (~ 1 micron).
The models marry mechanical and (increasingly) chemical transformations that affect wafer polishing. Key phenomena that we address include slurry particle-wafer interactions, polishing pad deformation, local and wafer scale pressure distributions, statistical analysis of pad topography, pad-wafer relative velocity, and chemical transformations on the pad, particle and wafer surfaces. The experimental work is supported by targeted polishing experiments in our labs and in the facilities of industry partners.

Beaudoin and his students are also involved in studies of plasma modification of polymer surfaces for biosensor applications. In the case of the biosensors, Beaudoin is part of a multi-disciplinary team that is developing optical-fiber based biosensors for rapid definitive analysis of biological fluid (such as blood or spinal fluid)to detect disease markers. Emerging applications of this approach involve rapid (less than 5 minutes) diagnosis of stroke or heart attack.
The probes are also being developed for use in understanding the complex processes involved in the healing of large area wounds such as burns, bed sores, and diabetic skin ulcers, as well as in detection of biowarfare agents in battlefield and civilian environments. The Beaudoin team is responsible for the development of thin film polymer housings that isolate the probes from attack by the body or from deleterious interactions with organic or inorganic material in the liquid samples. We use soft lithography to fabricate micropatterned thin films with openings on the order of 5-10 microns in diameter. These are then treated with a microwave plasma in our custom plasma reactor to induce the formation of primary amine species on the polymer surface. Subsequently, proteins, sugars, or other species may be immobilized on the polymer through these amine sites to improve the biocompatibility of the polymer surface.
Block Ionomers for Biomedical Delivery
Professor Won comes from a background in block copolymers, and is currently applying this in exploring new methods for structuring novel nanoscale morphologies tailored in biotechnological contexts. The envisioned strategies involve using multiple molecular interactions including electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic effects, and van der Waals forces. The current state of the art of polymer chemistry allows a wealth of industrially or biologically relevant polymers to be used as component model materials for this project. Two classes of block ionomers (i.e., block copolymers that contain at least one ionic block) are targeted for study. First, ABC-type polymers where A, B, and C represent hydrophilic, ionic and hydrophobic blocks, respectively. Possibly, the triple handle of molecular characteristics controlling self-assembly can be utilized to create novel morphological states that are responsive to designed external stimuli, which would offer a potential avenue towards controlled release in drug delivery. Second, double hydrophilic AB-type block ionomers. Here Professor Won is interested in investigating mixtures that contain positively charged block ionomers mixed with DNA molecules in water, to develop a fundamental understanding regarding the thermodynamics of block ionomer-aided DNA condensation and to establish unifying principles for producing nanoscopic DNA dispersions. This research relies on a range of techniques, including design and synthesis of block ionomers, characterization of the self-organized nanostructures in water with nanoscopy and scattering, and possibly others.

Nanoscale Science and Engineering

Research Focus
Nanoscale Science and Engineering embodies fundamental research and technology development of materials, structures, devices, processes, and systems where at least one physical dimension is on the length scale of approximately 1 - 100 nanometers. At these length scales many new phenomena arise due to quantum size effects and the dominant role played by interfaces. This is a current area of strength and a future area of growth at Purdue. In the department of Chemical Engineering there are 11 faculty involved with federally funded research programs in the area. This research thrust is cast in a larger effort (link to below) involving faculty from almost every department in the Schools of Science and Engineering. Within the department, most of the research may be divided into three subsections: (1) Nanomaterials and Nanoscale Structures, (2) Nanoscale Phenomena and Processes, and (3) Devices and Nanotechnology.
Nanomaterials and Nanoscale Structures
Traditionally, small structures and patterns are created from the top-down by techniques such as lithography. However, increasingly chemical and biological routes are being discovered to assemble nanoscale structures from the bottom-up by exploiting the robust process of self-assembly. The resulting materials may be nanoscale structures such as monodisperse nanoclusters or extended self-organized nanostructured materials. New materials and structures with novel properties emerge on a weekly basis as this field rapidly evolves and provides the foundation for many of the most exciting developments in nanotechnology. This is an active area of research in the department, and some of the efforts directed towards synthesizing novel nanomaterials are listed below:
Metallic nanoclusters (Andres, Lee)Nanostructured catalysts (Delgass, Hillhouse, Ribeiro)Langmuir-Blodgett films (Franses)Nanoparticle synthesis (Harris)Nanoporous and nanostructured thin films (Hillhouse)Computer-aided design of nanoporous materials (Thomson)Nanostructured polymers (Won)
Nanoscale Phenomena and Processes
The goal of research in this area focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of phenomena observed in nanoscale materials and the processes needed to engineer these phenomena into technology. Critical in this effort is an understanding of the synthesis of nanomaterials. Interfacial phenomena play a dominant role in the assembly processes since the ratio of surface atoms to interior atoms in nanoscale materials is much larger than traditional materials. As a result, the faculty’s expertise in interfacial phenomena has led to many new advances in our understanding of the formation of nanomaterials. Once synthesized, nanomaterials display many new phenomena that enable the development of new processes and systems. For instance, the transport properties of a material may be altered significantly when the material is patterned on the nanometer length scale and may result in unique electron, ion, and mass transport properties. For example, the mass transport properties of nanoporous materials may change abruptly when the pore diameter becomes comparable to the size of molecules in the system. In addition to transport properties, novel catalytic properties and molecular recognition events are being studied to develop a fundamental understanding of nanoscale phenomena. Some of the faculty’s efforts in this area are listed below:
Self-assembly of nanoscale structures (Andres, Corti, Franses, Harris, Hillhouse, Lee, Won)Colloidal and interfacial interactions of nanomaterials (Corti, Franses, Harris, Hillhouse, Lee)Facilitated ion transport and molecular sieve mass transport (Hillhouse)Single molecule interactions and molecular recognition (Lee)Ab initio simulation of nanoscale systems (Thomson)
Devices and Nanotechnology
As our understanding of nanoscale phenomena and our ability to rationally synthesize nanomaterials evolves, the challenge for researchers is to apply this understanding along with our creativity to invent, develop, and engineer novel devices. Departmental research in this area has led to many breakthroughs and patents and involves novel types of sensors, cancer treatments, and the promise of cleaner cheaper energy.
Molecular electronics (Andres)Nanostructured biosensors (Andres, Beaudoin, Lee)Biomedical applications of magnetic nanoclusters (Andres, Lee)Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as chemical sensors (Baertsch)Nanowire based thermoelectric devices (Hillhouse)Solar cells and fuel cells (Hillhouse)Nanowire and carbon nanotube (CNT) based molecular electronic devices (Thomson)Drug delivery (Won)
Purdue Nanotechnology Initiative
In addition to these departmental strengths, Chemical Engineering faculty are playing an instrumental role in a university wide nanotechnology initiative that includes the construction of the Birck Nanotechnology Center (BNC). The BNC is an interdisciplinary research center at Purdue University that will be housed in a $54 million state-of-the-art building to be constructed in Discovery Park on the western portion of campus. This building will be one of the most advanced facilities in the world, with specialized laboratories for nanoscale chemistry, physics, and biology; semiconductor-grade cleanrooms; and office space for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students from various disciplines across campus. Construction is now beginning and the building is due to open in spring 2005. Research by Purdue faculty in this area is funded by a National Nanotechnology Initiative that is supported by over 16 federal agencies including the National Science Foundation.
Graduate Level Courses in Nanoscale Science and Engineering
In addition to the basic science and engineering courses that provide the requisite background needed to understand nanoscale phenomena, the Chemical Engineering department is developing a suit of courses that are specially designed to help educate scientist and engineers in this area. A listing of these courses are provide below:
CHE 597W – Microscale and Nanoscale Physical Phenomena (Prof. Lee & Prof. Wereley)CHE 668 – Colloidal and Interfacial Phenomena (Prof. Franses)CHE 697K – Introduction to Molecular Simulation and Modeling (Prof. Thomson)CHE 697M – Nanomaterials Chemistry and Engineering (Prof. Hillhouse)
In addition, there are courses being developed in other departments as well that are open to chemical engineering graduate students:
CHM 696C –

Bio-Nanotechnology (Prof. Mao - Chemistry)
ECE 557 –

Solid State Devices and Materials (Prof. Janes – Electrical and Computer Engineering)
ECE 653 –

Nanoelectronics (Prof. Datta and Prof. Lundstrom - Electrical and Computer Engineering)
ME 597F –

Microscale and Nanoscale Energy Transport (Prof. Fisher - Mechanical Engineering)
MSE 697T –

Principles and Methods of Nanofabrication (Prof. Sands - Materials Science and Engineering)

Surface Science and Reaction Engineering

Research Focus
Aims of research in this area include a molecular-level understanding of the interaction of reacting molecules and solid surfaces and a quantitative description of the rates at which reactions occur, the stability of the states of reacting systems, the characterization of natural oscillatory behavior, and the performance multiphase reactors.
The Catalysis and Surface Chemistry Laboratory is part of the Catalyst Group headed by professor Delgass. It focuses on chemical kinetic measurements and surface characterization techniques applied to reactions such as catalytic epoxidation of olefins. The kinetic measurements are conducted by means of transient mass spectrometry, plug flow reactors with chromatographic analysis, flow chemisorption and physisorption, and temperature-programmed desorption methods. Surface analysis and catalyst characterization capabilities include x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and solid state NMR.
The Cluster-Based Materials Laboratory is part of Professor Andre's Cluster-Based Materials Group It contains state-of-the-art aerosol reactors for producing ultra-small metal and semiconductor clusters, an excimer laser photoionization, a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and a molecular beam apparatus for studying free clusters. Properties of supported clusters are measured by scanning tunneling and scanning force microscopy. Applications include synthesis of self-assembled 2 and 3 dimensional networks of metal nanoclusters for nanoelectroic devices.

Surface Imaging and Reaction Dynamics Laboratory
focuses on investigating non-linear phenomena observed during heterogeneously catalyzed reactions,
such as self-sustained rate oscillations and spatio-temporal pattern formation. A novel method,
ellipsomicroscopy for surface imaging, is employed to study pattern formation in-situ on catalyst
surfaces up to atmospheric pressures while reaction products are monitored simultaneously with
quadrupole mass spectroscopy. Complimentary theoretical modeling focuses on describing the transition
from reaction-diffusion control under isothermal reaction conditions to additional thermo-kinetic control.
A wide variety of catalysts (e.g. single crystalline transition metal surfaces, polycrystalline materials,
microdesigned and composite materials) are investigated together with the influence of catalytic promoters
and poisons on reaction rate, conversion, and selectivity of reactions such as methanol oxidation.
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The Computational Catalysis and Materials Group (Professor Thomson) takes advantage of state-of-the-art computer simulation techniques to study catalysis. Using ab initio (i.e. first principles) molecular dynamics simulations, investigations into the nature of adsorbate-lattice interactions in zeolites, reactivity dependence on lattice and surface microstructure and on catalyst formulation, and energetic analysis of activated reaction pathways are being pursued. Ab initio calculations provide detailed descriptions of the electron states within crystalline lattices (such as zeolites), active surfaces, and metal aggregates. The work aims to establish a theoretical basis for driving catalyst development strategies bent on improving yields and selectivities for industrial reactions.


Professor Ribeiro's group is studying Surface Science and Kinetics. To maximize the effectiveness of their experimental techniques they construct flat replicas of practical materials as models for their studies. For example, large single crystals may be used to study surface properties as a function of surface orientation. The control of properties at close to atomic resolution allows them to scrutinize surface properties with unprecedented detail. They attempt to correlate the surface properties to the performance of the material by carrying out test reactions on the model samples at realistic conditions. Professor Ribeiro's work has a strong experimental component, usually building their own dedicated apparatus, but also relying on first principles calculations for the interpretation of results.


In Professor Baertsch’s group, silicon microfabrication methods are used to construct small microchemical reactors and microsystems (MEMS) for applications in catalysis research. Microreactors fabricated out of silicon and quartz components are optically transparent over a wide spectral range and can be used at the high temperatures required for catalytic processes. Such devices provide an ideal platform for the simultaneous characterization of reaction kinetics and surface properties of working catalysts using both on-line chemical analysis for product detection and in-situ surface science techniques. Further, the ease of replication and ability to integrate on-chip heaters and sensors provide the opportunity to perform these operando spectroscopy studies in a high-throughput manner to rapidly generate catalyst structure-function relationships.
In reaction engineering (Professor Ramkrishna's Research Group) the emphasis is on applications of advanced mathematics to solving problems concerning chemical and biochemical reactors. Applications include: (i) use of multi-catalyst patterned and recycle reactors to improve selectivity and productivity, (ii) analysis of spatio-temporal patterns on catalytic surfaces, (iii) cybernetic modeling of cell regulatory processes in the analysis and design of large metabolic systems, (iv) use of population balances to model emulsion behavior, and detailed modeling of precipitation and crystallization processes involving integration of the processes nucleation, particle breakage and aggregation with complex fluid flow environments.
The directed design of catalysts is a cross disciplinary area that uses systems engineering approaches to integrate combinatorial experimentation with physical/chemical modeling, expert rules, and quantum level calculations to create a converging cycle that produces catalysts designed to meet chosen performance criteria. This new approach has the promise to reveal new fundamental structure-performance relationships in catalysis and to change the way practical catalysis research is done.

Molecular and Nanoscale Modeling

Research Focus

The area of Molecular and Nanoscale Modeling at Purdue University couples fundamental principles of statistical mechanics and quantum theory with modern computing tools to derive atomistic descriptions of materials structure, materials properties, and a wide range of solid state and fluid phase physico-chemical phenomena. Research at Purdue ranges from colloid science and interfacial phenomena, to nanotechnology and related materials, to computational catalysis and surface science.

Professor Corti
As science and technology strive toward a greater control at the micro- and meso-scopic lengthscales, chemical engineers require a deeper understanding of how molecular interactions influence key equilibrium and kinetic properties. The research program in molecular-scale modeling is therefore concerned with the prediction of the equilibrium and dynamic behavior of various substances and materials of interest from a detailed knowledge of the interactions arising on the molecular level. The areas which molecular modeling impact are broad in scope, ranging from nanomaterials to bulk fluids, polymeric systems, complex fluids, porous materials, and biological systems (to name a few).
Metastable liquids are ubiquitous in nature and have important technological applications. In particular, superheated liquids (metastable with respect to the vapor phase) are important in maximizing yields during the rinsing and subsequent release of microelectromechanical devices after etching and in minimizing the erosion (via cavitation) of equipment in the chemical industry. Yet, fundamental questions persist about the properties of metastable liquids and their theoretical description. For example, the molecular mechanism of bubble nucleation in superheated liquids is not well understood. Current predictions of the rates of bubble nucleation can be significantly different from experimental results. Theoretical and computational techniques are being developed to improve our understanding of and provide better estimates of the phase transitions in superheated liquids.
Figure: Schematic representations of how entropic forces within a bidisperse system can be used to control the motion and eventual placement of particles. Arrows indicate the direction towards which the entropic forces are acting. In (A), an entropic force serves to push the particle to the corner of the container. In (B), an entropic force acts on the particle preventing it from leaving the ledge. In (C), the substrate generates an entropic force field that attracts the large particles to the interior corners. The particles are also attracted to one another via an additional entropic force.
The ability of colloids and nano-sized particles to self-organize suggests that these particles could be used as precursors for advanced materials via the generation of two- and three-dimensional microstructures. Yet, a large barrier to technological application of these structures has been the lack of simple, easily controlled methods for shaping the groups of particles, over large areas, into usable objects. Recent experimental work suggests that geometric features of the surface can create �entropic force fields� that can trap, repel, or induce drift of particles, thereby controlling the position and motion of various particles. Various issues concerning the feasibility of such methods, however, need to be addressed. Computational and theoretical research will be directed towards determining whether the entropic control of colloidal particles is an effective mechanism for designing and manipulating the performance of various systems of interest.
Professor Thomson
The remarkable push towards nanotechnology in the last decade comes at a fortuitous time in materials science. The challenge ahead for the field will be the fruition of speculation and theory into practical devices and real applications. Co-current with the drive for nanoengineered devices has been the discovery of a steady stream of novel and interesting nanoporous materials�materials that set the stage for nanotechnology function by offering confining environments at the appropriate scale.
However the discovery of novel materials to meet these demands requires more sophistication than ever before. It is evident that molecular simulation can be the key to success, if sufficiently creative tools can be developed. By integrating the concept of rational materials design with fundamental molecular-scale computation, Purdue University is at the cutting edge in the pursuit of a new paradigm in computational materials design. Professor Thomson uses ab initio (quantum theory) based simulations to model materials design and function at the molecular scale. Much of this effort involves developing computational tools to assist in the design and discovery of novel materials. The Computational Catalysis and Materials Group takes advantage of state-of-the-art computer simulation techniques to study catalysis. Using ab initio (i.e. first principles) molecular dynamics simulations, investigations into the nature of adsorbate-lattice interactions in zeolites, reactivity dependence on lattice and surface microstructure and on catalyst formulation, and energetic analysis of activated reaction pathways are being pursued. Ab initio calculations provide detailed descriptions of the electron states within crystalline lattices (such as zeolites), active surfaces, and metal aggregates. The work aims to establish a theoretical basis for driving catalyst development strategies bent on improving yields and selectivities for industrial reactions.
This computational approach provides the fundamental foundation for a broader methodology called discovery informatics, which was developed as part of multi-discipline collaboration at Purdue. Discovery informatics refers to the automated management of complexity and knowledge through a systematic development of models, refinement of hypotheses, and integrated incorporation of high-throughput experimental data within an intelligent modeling environment. An important challenge for discovery informatics in the near future, that we are well underway in tackling, is the development of creative simulation tools to help design novel materials to serve the catalysis and nanoscience fields.

Fluid Mechanics and Interfacial Phenomena


Research Focus
Professor Franses
Professor Franses' group models and measures the competitive adsorption of ionic, surfactant mixtures or lipid/protein mixtures at air/water and liquid/solid interfaces. Applications include foam stability/lung surfactants and adsorptive separations, respectively. They collaborate in the former with Professor O.A. Basaran, and in the latter with Professors N.-H.L. Wang and G. Lee. Their group uses equilibrium and dynamic surface tensiometry surface potential measurements, and direct probing methods - ellipsometry and IR reflection - absorption spectroscopy - to determine surface densities, surface compositions, and molecular conformations in the adsorbed monolayers. They also model dynamic adsorption, bulk diffusion, convection, and micellar or vesicular dissolution phenomena to describe and predict dynamic surface tensions. At the solid/liquid interfaces, their goals are to molecularly-engineer interfacial layers which have favorable affinities and selectivities for useful chemicals and biochemicals, including antibiotics and proteins.
Another research area emphasizes the study of equilibrium and dynamic adsorption of surfactants and proteins at the air/water interface and the implications for foam-based separations and lung surfactants effectiveness in combatting lung disease. This research is carried out in the Interfacial Engineering Laboratory, which is equipped with two spinning drop interfacial tensiometers, a pulsating bubble tensiometer, a Kruss ring or plate tensiometer, and a Ram?-Hart pendant or sessile drop tensiometer. Moreover, two computer-controlled troughs allow study of spread Langmuir monolayers, surface potential, adsorption probing by radioactive tracers, and deposition of Langmuir- Blodgett ultrathin organic films of controlled composition, thickness, and supermolecular architecture. This processing method for making oriented ultrathin films of controlled quality, permeability, and optical properties is compared with other processing methods (casting, spin coating, etc.) by various spectroscopic and optical methods. Polymer surfaces and interfaces are also being studied by optical and laser based techniques including nonlinear optics.
Laboratory facilities for studying colloidal and other dispersions include different reactor equipment and an excellent image analysis system which are being actively exploited for the investigation of droplet break-up and coalescence. Practical applications encompass the shelf-life of food emulsions, improvement of selectivity in multi-reaction liquid-liquid systems and so on.
Professor Basaran
Research is underway in Professor Basaran's laboratory aimed at improving the fundamental understanding of multiphase flows involving drops, bubbles, and films. Currently, attention is focused on the use of electric fields in separations, the effects of surfactant and polymeric additives in atomization coating, spray painting, and crop spraying, and development of new techniques for measuring dynamic surface tension and extensional viscosity.
This research relies equally on large-scale numerical computation and experimentation. The computations make use of finite element, boundary element, and VOF methods. The resulting algorithms and codes are run on either various workstations, including three Silicon Graphics machines with state-of-the art animation capabilities and two IBM RS/6000s that are owned by the group, or parallel computers that are available at Purdue and elsewhere.
The experiments rely on two highly sophisticated and unique pieces of equipment. The first is an ultra high-speed Kodak Ektrapro digital imaging system with dual imagers that is capable of recording 12,000 frames per second, and the second is a PDA/LDV (Phase Doppler Anemometer/Laser Doppler Velocimeter) from Dantec Instruments that is capable of simultaneously measuring two components of velocity and particle size in a spray.
Professor Beaudoin
Professor Beaudoin and his students focus their work on understanding the adhesion between particles and thin films, with special emphasis on systems relevant to the microelectronics industry. The work is driven by the fact that contaminant particles as small as 0.03 microns in diameter can produce fatal errors in finished integrated circuits. The research explains how and why these particles adhere, and what is required to prevent adhesion or remove particles that are adhered to a surface. The work is part of the NSF/SRC Center for Environmentally-Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing, an academia-industry-government partnership focused on the development and implementation of environmentally-conscious materials and methods during integrated circuit manufacturing. Partners in this center include MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Cornell, and the University of Maryland, as well as more than 40 semiconductor manufacturing companies, the National Science Foundation, and the Semiconductor Research Corporation. New applications in homeland security, including detection of explosives and decontamination of surfaces following terrorist attack, are also emerging. The research involves the development of theoretical models for the adhesion of rough, nonuniform, deformable particles to rough surfaces in a variety of media ranging from aqueous solutions of varying pH to high vacuum environments. This theoretical work is supported by experimental adhesion investigations using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and mechanical materials characterization.


Aerospace • Aerospace engineering • Marine engineering • Motor vehicles • Space technology • Transport

Product and Process Systems Engineering


Research Focus
Given the demands for chemical processes that are inherently safe, environmentally sound, economical, and flexible enough to withstand sudden market changes, the development and application of computer-based methodology is increasingly critical to the successful solution of problems in design, operation, and control. The School conducts research to address issues in all three principal subareas. The continuing advances in digital technology and the increasing integration of communication and computer technology will have a profound impact on the Chemical Process Industries (CPI). As such, much of the research conducted in the process systems area is at the frontiers of computer science and applied mathematics. Many research projects are carried out in partnership with industrial members of the Computer Integrated Process Operations Consortium (CIPAC) which includes Eastman Chemical Company, Eli Lilly, Gensym, IBM, Morton International, Phillips Petroleum, and Weyerhaeuser. CIPAC provides a mechanism for disseminating research results to industry, keeping research efforts realistic, exchanging students and full-time research personnel between academic and industrial environments, and matching student skills to industrial employment opportunities.
Research is ongoing in the following areas:
Plant friendly techniques for identifying process control models
Statistical process monitoring and control
Robust model-based control and optimization
Process trend monitoring and diagnosis
Synthesis of safe process operating procedures
Knowledge-based methods for Abnormal Situation Management®
Plant-wide optimization in real-time
Scheduling and planning of production facilities
Systematic methods for incorporating uncertainty in planning and scheduling applications
Supply chain planning and optimization
Risk assessment and probabilistic decision making under uncertainty
The developed methodologies are applied to large scale continuous processes, such as those that arise in petrochemicals plants; batch-wise operations for either entire plants or specific complex process units that arise in pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, and certain types of polymer processes; as well as mixed batch/continuous facilities typically found in polymer processing, food processing, and pulp & paper processes. The research is directed at creating new methodologies, developing prototype implementations, and demonstrating the effectiveness of the resulting tools on important industrial problems. One of the key themes of the research is integration of applications and tools: achieving synergy through the linkage of the above application/decision levels and improving solution effectiveness by complimentary combination of diverse solution methodologies.
Professor Venkatasubramanian’s research group at the Laboratory for Intelligent Process Systems (LIPS) focuses on the development, integration and application of concepts and techniques drawn from fundamental sciences, engineering principles, computer science and artificial intelligence, mathematical programming, statistics, and information technology to address challenging engineering problems. The areas of research include process monitoring and abnormal events management, process safety and hazards analysis, pharmaceutical products discovery and engineering, product design and discovery informatics, complex adaptive systems, and systems biology.
Abnormal Events Management of Complex Chemical Plants
This research area deals with challenges in real-time monitoring, detection, diagnosis and control of abnormal process conditions. For the past twenty years, Professor Venkatasubramanian's LIPS group has focused on these challenges, developing a variety of solutions using knowledge-based systems, neural networks, statistical techniques, analytical models and hybrid systems. Our group has made pioneering contributions in this area that include:
A two-tier model-based reasoning framework for process fault diagnosis, an innovative approach for integrating compiled and deep-level knowledge for process diagnosis. The Computers and Chemical Engineering journal paper based on this work was adjudged to be the best paper in the AI category for the year 1988.
Causality-based failure-driven machine learning for diagnosis
A variety of neural network and clustering based approaches for diagnosis
Qualitative trend analysis framework, which was awarded the CAST Directors Award for the Best Poster Presentation at the AIChE Annual meeting in Los Angeles, Nov 2000.
A hybrid, distributed, blackboard-based diagnostic environment, called DKit. This is the first hybrid diagnostic system that has been tested successfully on large-scale industrial processes. The LIPS group was part of Honeywell’s Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (1995-2000) and DKit was used to implement AEGIS prototypes. In 1999, Honeywell licensed the DKit-based technology. This is the first time a university-developed technology was licensed by a control system vendor for ASM applications. The adoption of Professor Venkatasubramanian's research contributions for the design of next-generation process control systems by leading industrial companies is an important recognition of the work by the LIPS research group.
Pharmaceutical Products Development and Engineering
One of the important bottlenecks in the pharma products development pipeline is the time and effort spent on synthesizing operating procedures and performing process hazards analysis (PHA). Synthesis of operating procedures involves the systematic generation of step by step instructions which an operator can implement to manage a batch plant safely and optimally. This is a labor- and knowledge-intensive task that often takes weeks of effort by experts to prepare a clear and error-free set of instructions. Professor Venkatasubramanian and his co-workers have developed an intelligent systems framework in which operating procedures are developed from information about the plant setup, process chemistry and recipe, and product properties and requirements. PHA deals with the problem of systematically predicting and analyzing the various adverse behaviors that might arise in a process due to different abnormalities and malfunctions. Both these activities are subject to FDA and OSHA regulations as well. Both these problems stand to benefit a lot by automation, but there are considerable technical and operational challenges.
The key issues for solving the automation problem are knowledge representation and planning. The knowledge representation strategy he developed handles both the process specific and process general knowledge in a flexible manner that can facilitate easy modification, and also address the discrete event character of batch processes. An intelligent system called iTOPS (Intelligent Tool for Operating Procedures Synthesis) has been successfully tested on industrial case studies. LIPS research group also developed novel knowledge-based systems, called HAZOPExpert, Batch HAZOPExpert, and PHASuite for automating HAZOP analysis. PHASuite has been tested on several industrial processes, and has been consistently observed to lead to about 50% reduction in time and effort. Once again, iTOPS and PHASuite are the first intelligent systems that have been validated on real-life industrial processes.
Product Design and Discovery Informatics
The process of designing new materials possessing desired physical, chemical and biological properties is an important endeavor in chemical, material and pharmaceutical industries. Industrial applications include designing composites and blends, drugs, agricultural chemicals such as pesticides or herbicides, refrigerants, solvents, paints and varnishes. With recent developments such as stricter penalties on environmentally unfriendly products and emphasis on value-added products and designer molecules, the search for novel materials has become an essential part of R&D in the above industries. In this research, in collaboration with Professor J. M. Caruthers, we address two sub-problems: the forward problem for prediction of the performance of a given material, and the inverse problem involving the actual design of a material or formulation based on target properties. We have developed an automated forward modeling framework that integrates fundamental knowledge of the system at various scales (from quantum to macroscopic), expert rules and experimental data. Our current research in the inverse problem area is directed towards the development of knowledge-driven, hybrid, evolutionary search procedures based on genetic algorithms. This framework has been successfully used for the design of fuel additives and rubber compound formulations, which are real-life industrial applications. Our research has also led to the publication of a book by Elsevier on Computer-aided Molecular Design: Theory and Practice, co-edited by Professor Venkatasubramanian.
Complex Adaptive Systems and Systems Biology
One of the important challenges facing the 21st century science is in understanding how complex adaptive systems composed of millions of relatively simple interacting entities produce complex emergent behavior. Such emergent behaviors are seen in a wide range of problems such as the behavior of ant colonies, flocking behavior of birds, investor behavior in stock markets, consciousness in brain etc. We are investigating the application of these ideas, i.e. systems concepts and techniques, for addressing the challenges in biology. We are currently exploring a variety of computational problem areas such as reverse engineering, representation and modeling of metabolic and signal transduction pathways, protein design using directed evolution, and the topological and functional analysis of complex networks.

Mass Transport and Separations

Research Focus
The separations area is both a classical chemical engineering field and one of the most actively researched because of its central importance to the new biotechnology-based processes. Topics under investigation include recovery of biochemicals from broths, protein adsorption, extensive studies of cyclic operating methods for adsorption and ion exchange in fixed beds and fluidized beds, ion exchange systems consisting of mixed exchangers, and new fixed-bed processes involving enzymatic reaction coupled with ion exchange.


Professor Wang
Separations research is conducted using the facilities of LORRE and the Bioseparations Laboratory. The Separation Research Laboratory is equipped to conduct small and bench scale chromatography and adsorption experiments. It contains a large selection of columns, gas and liquid chromatographs, pumps and instrumentation, digital timers and solenoids, and supporting equipment such as UV spectrophotometer, constant temperature baths, and computer work-stations for on-line data acquisition and analysis for preparative chromatography.
Professor Wankat
Professor Wankat is interested in separation processes and in improving engineering education. His current research in separation processes focuses on adsorption, large-scale chromatography and simulated moving bed systems and distillation. Adsorption research has focused on improving processing with pressure swing adsorption (PSA). We are looking at new PSA processing techniques to develop more productive processes, reduce energy use, and better purify the most strongly adsorbed species. Methods to couple thermal regeneration with PSA are being developed. Large-scale chromatography, particularly simulated moving bed (SMB) systems, are rapidly becoming standard separation systems. Although the SMB is an efficient chromatographic process it can suffer from low productivity and high solvent use. In addition, most applications have been for binary separations. We are using a commercial simulator to develop new binary SMB configurations to increase productivity and reduce solvent use, and new SMB configurations for various multicomponent separation problems. In addition, new chromatographic processes are being developed that in some multicomponent applications appear to be better than SMB cascades. Distillation is considered to be a mature separation technique. However, because of the huge scale of distillation operations, even modest improvements can have a major impact. We have been exploring methods to reduce the diameter of distillation columns when the calculated diameters vary significantly. Capital cost reductions up to 50 % are predicted. For a variety of reasons the engineering education system in the United States is currently in a state of flux. Because of this, there is an opportunity to improve the system. Professor Wankat is one of the national leaders in developing methods to teach graduate students and new professors how-to-teach and in developing methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of faculty.


Effects of bio- and abio-factors on electricity production in a mediatorless microbial fuel cell
Zhi-Dan Liua, b, , and Hao-Ran Lia
aNational Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
bGraduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Received 3 October 2006;
revised 14 February 2007;
accepted 16 February 2007.
Available online 22 February 2007.

References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
Abstract
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) attracts growing efforts as a kind of environmentally friendly biotechnology. This study examined effects of the bio-factors (anode inoculums species, inoculums concentration), as well as abio-factors (cathode electron acceptor and proton exchange material) on electricity production of a dual-chamber mediatorless MFC in fed-batch mode. MFCs inoculated with pure culture (Rhodoferax ferrireducens) and mixed culture (activated sludge) obtained the close peak voltages of around 0.18 V and had the similar coulombic yields of about 75 C using monosodium glutamate wastewater (MGW) as substrate. MFCs with different concentrations of inoculums (5%, 10% and 15%) also achieved the similar peak values of around 0.2 V after 30 days’ growth although they were different at the early stage. By replacing cathode oxygen-saturated solution with 10 mmol/L Fe(III)NTA or 10 mmol/L K3Fe(CN)6 solutions, voltage output nearly doubled (0.35 V). However the replacing of proton exchange membrane with salt bridge leaded to a marked decrease of voltage output. These results suggest that electricity production was more significantly influenced by cathode electron acceptor and proton exchange material, less affected by the inoculums species and inoculums concentration.
Keywords: Batch processing; Bioreactors; Biofilms; Glucose; Electricity production; Microbial fuel cell
Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Microorganisms and culture conditions
2.2. MFC system
2.3. Analytical methods
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of inoculums species
3.2. Effect of biofilms formation and attached area
3.3. Comparison of different cathode electron acceptors
3.4. Comparison of PEM MFC and salt bridge MFC
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a laboratory-scale MFC system.

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Consultant Number: 1403, Biotechnology Consultant: Flow Cytometry, Cell Based Assays, Autoimmune and Inflammatory Diseases
Consultant Number: ,
Consultant Number: 1406, Microbiology and Drug Delivery Systems Consultant
Separation / Purification
Optical isomer separation, protein separation, liquid chromatography, HPLC, filtration, RO.
Consultant Number: 228, Chromatography Consultant: Trace Analysis of Organics, Pesticides, Toxic Compounds and Bomb Residues
Consultant Number: 572, Biochemist: Regulatory and Validation Expert
Consultant Number: 1317, Protein Biophysics Consultant: Protein Identification and Analysis
Consultant Number: 1317, Protein Biophysics Consultant: Protein Identification and Analysis
Consultant Number: 1045, Biotechnology Consultant
Consultant Number: 1109, Expert Witness and Photopolymer Consultant for Optoelectronic Components, Digital Printing and Imaging
Consultant Number: 1182, Biochemical Engineer: Bioprocessing, Bioreactions, Fermentation and Related Engineering and Biochemical Processes
Consultant Number: 1224, Biomolecular Physicist Consultant: Development Novel Biomimetic Ligands
Consultant Number: 1334, Microbiologist Expert in Agricultural Immunoassay, Analytical Method Development and Biosecurity
Consultant Number: 1384, Protein and Cell Culture Bioprocessing Chemical Engineer Consultant
The CECON Group, Inc., Suite 202, 242 N. James Street, Wilmington, DE, 19804Phone: 302-994-8000 Fax: 302-994-8837 Toll Free: 888-263-8000Email - Site Map - Advanced Search
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