Bioprocess Equipment for Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Laboratory

生物技术是一个发展最快的新兴技术领域，特别是生物加工工程在决定我国在世界市场上有效竞争的能力方面变得越来越重要。在过去的九年里，化学工程系在马里兰州大学帕克分校已经开发了一个本科生实验室课程，通过一个迭代的过程，结合学生的反馈。实验经过精心挑选和设计，将经典的化学工程原理与现代生物技术相结合。它们涵盖了酶和微生物技术中大多数基本和常用的实验室技术。一系列与脲酶相关的生物过程目前形成了从初始培养分离到最终生物产品回收的主要实验的核心：1）菌株分离或基因工程，2）氧传质，3）发酵动力学，4）酶纯化，5）酶动力学，和6）酶固定化。由于脲酶将尿素水解为氨和二氧化碳，pH值的变化使酶能够容易，安全和廉价地检测。使用pH指示剂，酶反应可以可视化，因此，提供了很大的教学价值。该项目的影响远远超出了生物过程工程，因为大多数实验也非常适合单元操作实验室，这是一门核心化学工程课程，并且很容易移植到其他学校。已制定了多项传播活动的计划。这些生化工程实验中的大多数已经被设计，测试和证明与设备借来的研究生研究。然而，缺乏专用设备会导致许多问题。该项目的目标是为本科化学工程实验室采购最基本的生物过程设备。

Biotechnology is one of the fastest emerging technical fields, and bioprocess engineering in particular is becoming increasingly critical in determining our country's ability to compete effectively in the world market. Over the last nine years, the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland at College Park has developed an undergraduate laboratory course in biochemical engineering through an iterative process incorporating feedback from students. Experiments are carefully selected and designed to integrate classical chemical engineering principles with modern biotechnology techniques. They cover most of the basic and commonly used laboratory techniques in enzyme and microbial technology. A series of urease related bioprocesses currently form the heart of the major experiments ranging from initial culture isolation to final bioproduct recovery: 1) strain isolation or genetic engineering, 2) oxygen mass transfer, 3) fermentation kinetics, 4) enzyme purification, 5) enzyme kinetics, and 6) enzyme immobilization. As urease hydrolyzes urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide, changes in the pH allow the enzyme to be easily, safely, and inexpensively detected. With pH indicators, the enzyme reaction can be visualized, thus, providing great pedagogical value. The impact of the project reaches far beyond bioprocess engineering, as most of the experiments are also highly suitable for the unit operations laboratory, a core chemical engineering course, and are easily portable to other schools. Plans for multiple dissemination activities exist. Most of these biochemical engineering experiments have already been designed, tested, and proven with equipment borrowed from graduate research. However, lack of dedicated equipment causes many problems. The objective of the project is to procure the most fundamental bioprocess equipment for the undergraduate chemical engineering laboratory.