2. โข Definition:
Biochemical engineering is branch of chemical or biological engineeing
mainly deals with design and construction of unit processes that involves
biological organisms or molecules (bioreactor).
OR
Biochemical Engineering involves all the designing and engineering aspects
related to production of useful products from microorganisms like
pharmaceuticals, enzymes, chemicals, food technology etc. and we deal with
stuff like reactor designing , process designing.
OR
Biochemical engineering, also known as bioprocess engineering, is a field of
study with roots stemming from chemical engineering and biological
engineering. It mainly deals with the design, construction, and advancement of
unit processes that involve biological organisms or organic molecules and has
various applications in areas of interest such as biofuels, food,
pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and water treatment processes.
3. SCOPE /Necessity
โข biochemical is specific process that uses complete living cells or their
components to obtain desired products.
โข Transport of energy and mass is fundamental to many biological and
environmental processes. Areas, from food processing to thermal design
of building to biomedical devices to pollution control and global
warming, require knowledge of how energy and mass can be transported
through materials.
โข When a product is manufacture in bulk amount, biochemical engineering
plays important role. Production of synthetic amino acid, beverages,
vaccines, hormones, antibiotics all these are accomplish with biochemical
engineering.
๏ Most favored for optimal production
๏ Duplication of these conditions during scaled- up production
๏ Advances in genetic engineering
๏ In solving environmental, pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural problems
๏ Safety, purity, potency, efficacy and consistency
๏ To delivered quality product to market
4. Value Engineerig
๏ง Value engineering (VE) is a systematic method to improve the
"value" of goods or products and services by using an
examination of function.
๏ง Value, as defined, is the ratio of function to cost.
๏ง Value can therefore be increased by either improving the
function or reducing the cost.
๏ง Value Engineering is a powerful methodology for solving
problems and/or reducing costs while maintaining or
improving performance and quality requirements.
5. โข Benefits of value engineering:
1. Lowering O & M costs (Operation and
maintenance costs)
2. Improving quality management
3. Improving resource efficiency
4. Simplifying procedures
5. Minimizing paperwork
6. Lowering staff costs
7. Increasing procedural efficiency
8. Optimizing construction expenditures
9. Developing value attitudes in staff
10.Competing more successfully in marketplace
8. ๏ง Before World War II the field of bioengineering was essentially unknown,
and little communication or interaction existed between the engineer and
the life scientist. A few exceptions, however, should be noted.
๏ง The agricultural engineer and the chemical engineer, involved in
fermentation processes, have always been bioengineers in the broadest
sense of the definition since they deal with biological systems and work
with biologists.
๏ง World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate, which Pfizer imported
from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began a
search for an alternative supply. Pfizer chemists learned of a fungus that
ferments sugar to citric acid, and they were able to commercialize
production of citric acid from this source in 1919.
๏ง The company developed expertise in fermentation technology as a result.
These skills were applied to the deep-submergence mass production of
penicillin, an antibiotic, during World War II in response to the need to treat
injured Allied soldiers.
๏ง It wasn't until 1928 when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin that the
field of biochemical engineering was established.
9. ๏ง After this discovery, samples were gathered from around the world in order
to continue research into the characteristics of microbes from places such
as soils, gardens, forests, rivers, and streams.
๏ง Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 โ August 16, 1973) was a
Jewish Russian-born American inventor, Nobel Prize laureate, biochemist
and microbiologist whose research into the decomposition of organisms
that live in soil enabled the discovery of streptomycin and several other
antibiotics.
โข Streptomycin was isolated from S. griseus and found effective against
tuberculosis.
11. Instrumentation and their control
โข Instrumentation of Biochemical Engg--------
โข In process industries, the following variables are
usually measured and monitored through
instrumentation.
1. Quality and quantity of raw material and products
2. Utility consumption (power, steam, water, etc.)
3. Process variables (temperature, pH, etc.)
4. Analyses of process safety and environmental
protection.
14. Physical parameter:
1. Temperature:
๏ง The temperature in a bioreactor is an important parameter in any
bioprocess, because all microorganisms and enzymes have an
optimal temperature at which they function most efficiently.
๏ง For example, optimal temperature for cell growth is 37 โC for
Escherichia coli and 30 โC for Saccharomyces sp, respectively.
๏ง Although there are many types of devices for temperature
measurements, metal-resistance thermometers or thermistor
thermometers are used most often for bioprocess instrumentation.
๏ง The data of temperature is sufficiently reliable and mainly used for
the temperature control of bioreactors and for the estimation of the
heat generation in a large-scale aerobic fermenter such as in yeast
production or in industrial beer fermentation.
15. 2. Power Consumption:
๏ง Power consumption sometimes becomes important in
industrial bioprocesses, because the power used for aeration
and agitation can be highly expensive.
๏ง The cost of power consumption occupies approximately 15โ
20% of total production cost in aerobic fermentation
processes.
3. Agitation :
๏ง The speed of agitation is closely related to the mixing
characteristics of a bioreactor and to the oxygen transfer rate .
๏ง A foaming sensor is required for proper addition of the anti-
foaming agent(polydimethylsiloxanes). It is noted that the
addition of an anti-foaming agent temporarily decreases the
oxygen transfer rate.
16. 3. Viscosity :-
1. The viscosity of a broth is monitored by a rotational
viscometer in some fermentation processes that use
filamentous bacteria such as in antibiotics production
where the viscosity of the culture broth increases as
fermentation progresses.
2. Increase in the viscosity of a culture broth results in a
decrease in the oxygen transfer rate and the increase of
power consumption.
17. 4) Turbidity :- Many studies have been focused on
developing a sterilizable probe to measure the turbidity of
the culture broth, because the turbidity can be an index of
cell concentration, which is one of the most important
parameters in bioprocess operations.
5) Gas-Flow Rate :- Gas flow rate is measured by a
floating meter or a mass flow meter that can measure flow
rate independent of pressure and temperature effects.
6) Liquid-Flow Rate :- Liquid flow rate is measured when
a medium is fed into a bioreactor. The flow rate of cooling
water is also monitored in industrial bioprocessing plants.
18. Chemical parameter
1. pH :-
โข The pH in a bioreactor is also an important variable,
because all microorganism or enzymes have pH that
is optimal for growth.
โข Sterilizable pH combination electrodes are widely
used in bioprocessing instrumentation.
โข pH data are usually reliable and are used mainly to
control the pH of a bioreactor.
2. Oxidation:
โข Oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) is measured
by an ORP probe, which is effective to monitor the
redox potential of a bioreactor operated.
19. 3. Dissolved Oxygen :-
โข The metabolic behavior of a microorganism
drastically changes depending on the concentration
of the oxygen in a bioreactor.
โข For example, yeasts (facultative microorganism)
produce ethanol (alcohol beverage) under anaerobic
conditions, but they become bakerโs yeast under
aerobic conditions.
