Introducing Chemical Engineering Undergraduates to Bioprocessing through the Unit Operations Laboratory

In response to the recent biotechnology boom, many chemical engineering departments have recognized the need to incorporate biology, biochemistry, and bioprocessing into the undergraduate curriculum. Since curriculum changes can often be difficult to implement, departments must develop innovative problems, projects, and laboratory experiments illustrating bio-principles that can be incorporated into existing chemical engineering courses. The Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering has successfully implemented a bioprocessing experiment in the Unit Operations Laboratory. The key component to developing this experiment was utilizing a lab-scale fermentation unit to monitor and maintain system temperature, pH, agitation rate, and oxygen content. The goal of the lab was to utilize yeast to perform a glucose to ethanol fermentation. This paper will outline the methods used to develop the lab, the results obtained during the experiment, and provide information to other faculty regarding how to implement this experiment in their own chemical engineering lab.