Integrated Bioprocess Experiments for the Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Curriculum

这所大学最初成立的愿景是支持密歇根州和中西部北部的工业。在化学工程部，这意味着支持对该地区至关重要的传统化学加工行业。然而，与过去几年相比，化学工程师每年进入的市场技术上都更加多样化。如今，越来越多的化学工程师在环境工程、电子制造和生化加工领域找到了工作。为了满足这种日益增长的多样性，该系已投入大量资源用于新的生化工程重点，这一点特别得到认可，因为学生的兴趣和地区对生物处理培训工程师的需求。为了启动这项工作，该系增加了两名具有生化工程专业知识的新教员。这些教职员工的回应是为学生开发新的生化工程课程，提供必要的课堂培训。开发中缺失的因素显然是缺乏在生化工程方面的实践经验和实验室经验。为了满足这一需求，本项目建立了一对综合生物过程工程实验，允许学生从原材料中生产生化物质，并使用与工业相关的生物分离技术进行纯化。通过细菌发酵生产L-赖氨酸并通过离子交换层析回收的新系统，为学生提供了完整的中试设施的第一手体验，同时也用于演示化学和生化工程基础的应用。因此，该项目不仅服务于对生化工程感兴趣的学生，也服务于对传统化学工程感兴趣的学生，因为它为学习热质传递、过程控制和化学动力学等化学过程基础提供了一个独特的系统。该项目通过整合生物处理中试设施，建立在该部门耗资数百万美元的化学加工中试设施的基础上。*

The university was originally established with a vision to support the industries of Michigan and the upper midwest. In the Department of Chemical Engineering, this has meant supporting the traditional chemical processing industries that are vital to the region. Yet, each year chemical engineers enter a marketplace more technically diverse than it was in years past. Today, a greater percentage of chemical engineers are finding employment in the areas of environmental engineering, electronics fabrication, and biochemical processing. To meet this growing diversity, the department has committed substantial resources to a new biochemical engineering emphasis, which was recognized in particular because of both student interest and regional demand for engineers trained in bioprocessing. To initiate this effort, the department has added two new faculty with expertise in biochemical engineering. These faculty have responded by developing new biochemical engineering courses for the students that will provide the needed classroom training. The missing ingredient in the development has clearly been the lack of hands-on, laboratory experience in biochemical engineering. To meet this need, this project establishes a pair of integrated bioprocess engineering experiments that allows students to both produce a biochemical from raw materials and purify it using industrially relevant bioseparation techniques. The new system, L-lysine production by bacterial fermentation and recovery by ion-exchange chromatography, gives students first-hand experience with a complete pilot-scale facility, while also serving to demonstrate the application of chemical and biochemical engineering fundamentals. Thus, the project serves not only the students interested in biochemical engineering but also the students interested in traditional chemical engineering since it provides a unique system for studying chemical process fundamentals such as heat and mass transfer, process control, and chemical kinetics. This project builds on the department's multimillion-dollar chemical processing pilot-plant facilities by integrating a bioprocessing pilot-plant facility. *