Fermentation

1
Fermentation

• Fermentation refers to biological reactions
  involving microorganisms carried out in
  bioreactors called fermenters. Applications of
  fermentation range from bioproduct manufacturing
  to biological waste treatment
• This laboratory has the following goals
• Biological growth in batch mode
• Measurement of process parameters such as
  biomass, substrate and product concentrations
• Stoichiometry of biological reactions
• Pilot plant operation and control
• Trouble shooting and analysis skills
• Self-directed learning investigation

2
Hemodialysis

• For patients with kidney failure hemodialysis is
  the main treatment used to remove metabolites
  from the blood. The principles are simple blood
  and
• dialysate are circulated on opposite sides of a
  semi-permeable membrane which
• permits selective passage of metabolites.
• This laboratory has the following goals
• Demonstration of the kidney dialysis
• Effect of operating conditions on mass transfer
  of metabolites
• Determination of mass transfer coefficients as a
  function of operating conditions.
• Effect of mode of operation (cocurrent vs
  countercurrent with and without recycle.

3
Gas Separation Using Membranes

• Membranes are widely used as a separation process
  for gases by using the preferential transport of
  one gas over the other through a membrane. One
  major application is the purification of oxygen
  and nitrogen from air.
• This laboratory has the following goals
• Permeability coefficients determination for pure
  oxygen and pure nitrogen.
• Comparison of theory to actual data with air
  feed for the effect of pressure, concentration
  and flow rate on membrane performance.
• Measurement of flux, selectivity, and recovery.
• Study of various modes of operation (cocurrent
  vs countercurrent).

4
Reaction Kinetics

• The performance of continuous stirred tank
  reactors (CSTR) and tubular reactors (PFR) are
  predicted in this experiment based on reaction
  kinetic data and tracer studies.
• The objective of this experiment is to
• Determine reaction rate constants from batch
  data for the given reaction.
• Determine the residence time distributions (RTD)
  in the CSTR and PRF from tracer studies.
• Determine the activation energies and heat of
  reaction using an Arrhenius Plot.
• Compare experimental conversion and exit age
  distribution with prediction from theory.

5
Polymer Extrusion

• Polymers are produced in huge quantities for a
  wide range of applications
• Film for food packaging
• Car parts
• Construction
• Tubes
• Aircrafts/boats/ships
• The extruder is the workhorse of the plastics
  industry for melting and finally forming polymer
  products
• The objective of this experiment is to
• Study the performance of a screw extruder.
• Polymer flow property is characterized in terms
  of the Melt Index

6
Heated Tank

• Almost every chemical process requires
  temperature control.
• Tight temperature control involves an
  understanding of the system dynamics as well as
  controller parameters.
• The specific objectives of this experiment
  include
• Perform empirical modeling (e.g. temperature
  dynamics) and PID controller tuning
• Gain experience with several types of control
  strategies (feedback, feed forward, cascade and
  multi-loop controls) and the effect of
  transportation delays.

7
pH System

• The pH of liquids affects important process
  phenomena, such as reaction rates, vapor-liquid
  equilibrium, and corrosivity
• The pH dynamics demonstrate significant
  nonlinearity.
• The specific objectives of this experiment
  include
• Perform empirical modeling of pH dynamics and its
  controller tuning for a complex cascade and
  multi-loop system.
• Gain experience with digital equipment for
  implementing the PID feedback algorithm
• Define and perform a Self-Directed Learning
  investigation