Bioreactor design, automation and optimization - A multidisciplinary approach

Abstract

Students from our engineering technology, biology, and safety management programs developed a bioreactor to produce bioethanol from various organic wastes. Bioethanol can also be made from corn, potatoes, rice, beetroot and recently grapes. However, making bioethanol from crops negatively impacts the availability of such products for food consumption. By using organic waste, this project ensures sustainable consumption and production patterns. Converting waste to bioethanol creates a fuel from a biomass that would have been energetically wasted during the decomposition process. Using bioethanol or blending it with gasoline both reduce the reliance on fossil fuel and ultimately reduce the carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. Thus, it is a truly sustainable transport fuel. In this paper, the design of the bioreactor, instrumentation and automation mechanisms are presented. Kinetics studies and the results from the optimization of the reactor operating conditions area also discussed. Since such work also was carried out as part of engineering technology students' senior capstone project, lessons on project management, budget and schedule development, teamwork, and technical communication will also be presented. Process data were analyzed by biology students to estimate the amount of ethanol produced under various operating scenarios. Biology students also had primary responsibility for selecting and preparing the bioreactor feedstocks. The contributions of the safety management students emphasized to the team the importance of considering safety as part of the design and operation of a process. This multi-disciplinary project emphasizes important aspects of an education that will assist students in the real world. Students must master the language of other disciplines, work together to design and build a system and make sure the system meets the original goals set by the project. Such programs could be a model for the future, high-impact, cross-disciplinary direction of engineering technology education.