Progress 09/15/05 to 09/14/09
Outputs
The objectives of this project were: 1.Development of laboratory experiments and course materials, 2.Installation and testing of internet-based videoconferencing classroom, 3.Testing and evaluation of course materials, and 4.Sharing the course documents with partnering universities. Bioprocess Engineering course (BIOE 622) was developed and taught for the first time during the fall 2008. Dr. Lijun Wang, a tenure-track faculty member in Biological Engineering Program at NC A&T State University was the instructor this course. He has a professional engineering license in Chemical Engineering had the primary teaching responsibility for this course. This is a required course within the Biological Engineering curriculum and as a result it is being offered continuously. A fully functioning video conferencing facility has been purchased and installed on the campus of both NC A&T SU and Florida A&M University for use with this multi-disciplinary multi-campus video conferencing course, and for other uses beyond this project. Course materials have also been developed and shared for the instruction of BIOE 422 Introduction to bioprocess engineering on NC A&T campus, and BASE 4812: Food and Bioprocess Engineering on Florida A&M University. Training was conducted by AVI-SPL on the use of the video conferencing technology and associated components. Participants included BIOE faculty and the manager of computational facilities from NCA&T for training on NC A&T campus. The training workshop at FA&MU was attended by faculty at Biological and Agricultural Systems Engineering (BASE), one student, and a computer support technologist from the FA&MU. The course notes and documents have been shared among the two partnering institutions, NCA&TSU and FA&MU. The third collaborator from the Fort valley State University left the university at the beginning of the project. Thus, they did not participate in the development of this course. When Fort Valley decides to develop a bioprocess engineering course in their Agricultural Engineering or Food Science curriculum, we will share the course materials with them. To introduce the new course material to faculty from other 1890 Universities, we are planning to make presentations during the ARD bi-annual symposium. PRODUCTS: We have developed four course modules. Module I, Energy and material balance which consists of 6 Chapters: Introduction to bio-processing, material conservation, cell growth, product formation, energy conservation, and energy calculation. Module II, Transport phenomena which consists of 6 chapters: Viscosity of fermentation broth, mixing calculation and improvement, heat transfer equipment, heat transfer calculation and design, mass transfer calculation and design, oxygen transfer and measurement. Module III, Bio-separation which consists of 4 chapters: Filtration and centrifugation, extraction, adsorption, and chromatography. Module IV, Bioreaction which consists of 4 chapters: bioreaction kinetics, cell growth kinetics, production kinetics, bioreactors OUTCOMES: We have developed a fully functioning bioprocess engineering course which is now a required course within the Biological Engineering curriculum. This course covers the engineering concepts for biological conversion of raw materials to food, pharmaceuticals, fuels, and chemicals. More emphasis has been placed on energy balance, material balance, fluid flow and mixing, heat and mass transfer, bioreaction kinetics, and control of bioreactors. For the first two-years of this course the enrollment was 5 students thus it was considered to be a low enrollment course (less than 10 students per course). However, a plan is under discussion to merge Biological and Chemical Engineering Programs on NCA&T campus. When this plan is complete we will enroll both Biological and Chemical Engineering students in this course which will generate high student enrollment and thus high impact on the student training. Florida A&M University (FAMU) is a partner in this multi-campus course development project. The bioprocessing course they developed was BASE 4812: Food and Bioprocess Engineering. This is a senior level course with about 3-5 student enrollment per year. This is a required course in the Agricultural and Biological engineering program. As the enrollment in the BASE program grows, the enrollment in this course will grow as well. It is also possible that we get some seniors from Food Science Program to sign up for this course as an elective course. The video conferencing room that we have developed is also available for other uses, for example, other courses and/or meetings with others outside of Biological and Agricultural Systems Engineering and Florida A&M University. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The course notes and documents have been shared among the two partnering institutions, NCA&TSU and FA&MU. The third collaborator was from the Fort valley State University who left the university at the beginning of this project. Thus, he did not participate in the development of this course. When Fort Valley decides to develop a bioprocess engineering course in their Agricultural Engineering or Food Science curriculum, we will share the course materials with them. To introduce the new course material to faculty from other 1890 Universities, we are planning to make presentations during the ARD bi-annual symposium. FUTURE INITIATIVES: We are planning to enroll Chemical Engineering students along with Biological Engineering students in this course thus, increasing its scope and impact.
Impacts
The creation of the Bioprocess Engineering concentration within the Biological Engineering Program at NCA&TSU is a major consequence of this project. As a result of this development we have been able to add 7 students per year to our enrollment during the first three years of starting this program. As a result, our enrollment in the Biological Engineering Program was increased from 24 students in 2005 to 52 students in 2009. Increased enrollment has enabled the Biological Engineering Program to get out of low enrollment category thus, avoid being closed down by the University of North Carolina.
Publications
- Shahbazi, A. Y. Li, Williams, K. 2007. Recovery of Lactic Acid from Fermentation Broth with Combined Nanofiltration and Reveres Osmosis Membrane. ASABE Paper No. 077062. St. Joseph, Mich.: 2007 ASABE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, June 17-20, 2007.
- C. Wan., Y. Li, A. Shahbazi. 2007. Succinic Acid Production from Cheese Whey using A. succinogenes 130 Z. The 29th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals Denver, Colorado, April 30-May 3, 2007.
- Wan. C., Y. Li, A. Shahbazi. 2007. Succinic Acid Production from Cheese Whey using A. succinogenes 130 Z. ASABE Paper No. 077029. St. Joseph, Mich.: 2007 ASABE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, June 17-20, 2007.
- Croonenburghs, James, S. Xiu, and A. Shahbazi. 2008. The Feasibility of Using Duckweed from Constructed Wetlands to Produce Biofuels. Biological Engineering Institute, Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC March 2008.
- Mr. James Croonenburghs, MS Thesis, The Feasibility of Using Duckweed from Constructed Wetlands to Produce Biofuels Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, NCA&TSU, May 2008.
- Karen Williams, MS Thesis, Separation of Lactic Acid from Fermentation Broth with Combined Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membrane, Chemical Engineering Department, NCA&TSU, May 2006.
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