(405e) Advancement in Kinetics and Biorefinery

Bioprocess engineering applications have experienced a boom in recent years. Understanding the principles governing the bioprocess is crucial in designing a bioprocess system. In this presentation, a couple of new findings / methods are exhibited.

Design of Experiment (DOE) is not just about experiment design, it is for product quality design as well. A good DOE is a compromise between quality of data and cost to obtaining the data. Minimally, quadratic designs are desired for meaningful applications. Two optimized new quadratic designs are presented.

In enzyme kinetics, Michaelis-Menten equation represents the simplest case, like the “first-order” reaction in chemical kinetics. The enzyme has a single reactive center and the interaction between the enzyme molecule and substrate molecule is simply on-off, among other assumptions. The Michaelis-Menten equation is a first-order rational expression. If the enzyme molecule refolds while interacting with the substrate molecule such as the induced-fit, the kinetics is very different. Often, the kinetic rates are of higher order rational expressions.

The theory of adsorption is important for both interaction with surfaces, separation, and catalysis. Langmuir adsorption is the first principle, although in many cases the simple Langmuir adsorption theory is not adequate. Cooperative adsorption theory is developed in extension to the Langmuir adsorption to cover nearly all cases of adsorption.

Some research findings in the area of biorefinery will be presented as well, including hot-water extraction, hydrolysis and mixed sugar fermentation. Circularly renewable bioplastics have two distinct properties: 1). The bioplastics can be produced from renewable resources; 2). The bioplastics can be reproduced from the same waste bioplastics. PLA and PHB have this potential.