Advanced Reaction Engineering (Bio Reactors and Catalysis)

Learning Outcomes

Disciplinary Specific Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Apply and evaluate concepts of reaction engineering in biological, and biochemical and catalytic reactions for the design of advanced bioreactors;
• Critically analyse the effects of diffusion in reactors to design and model multi-phase reactors and to be able to verify the suitability of the different reactors designs through rigorous calculations and analysis of results;
• Design advanced reactors that meet a diverse range of requirements, including technical, economic, safety and environmental, while recognising that reactor design is an open-ended exercise with multiple constraints and that can sometimes be based on incomplete or contradictory information;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Extend and apply understanding of reactor design to describe the operating parameters characteristic of catalytic and bio-reactors;
• Understand the effect of complex reaction and reactor systems and how these influence the composition, morphology and functionality of products;

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Select and utilise the appropriate tools to model the complex behaviour of real reactors

Advanced aspects of mass transfer: mass transfer combined with reaction, resistance in series model, gas liquid mass transfer systems, mass transfer in rate equations, pore diffusion limitation, effectiveness factors; Thiele modulus; hydrogenous reactions, boundary conditions, rate limiting steps, and multi-phase reactor design.

Application of the core concepts of reactor unit operations: to bubble columns, trickle bed reactors, fixed bed reactors and fluidised bed reactor.

Application of the mathematical concepts of reaction engineering: use of numerical and graphical solution methods, Dirac function, Riemann's sum, and integration methods.

Catalytic reactors: catalysts, steps in a catalytic reaction, models and mechanism, data analysis, catalyst deactivation, catalytic cracking

Bioreactors and bio-reactions: reaction mechanisms and pathways, pseudo steady-state, enzymatic reactions, bioreactors, applications of biotechnology and microbiology in reactors, fermentation, co-kinetic models.

Sustainable reactor design: life-cycle assessments, energy and material flow analysis, energy conservation and efficiency.

Practicals: Operation of a catalytic reactor and a bio-reactor.

Teaching will be done with a combination of formal lectures, problem-solving sessions and laboratory sessions. There will be an emphasis on active learning techniques, including workshops and tutorial sessions that focus on exercises and problems

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.