Scoping biology-inspired chemical engineering

Biology is a rich source of great ideas that can inspire us to find successful ways to solve the challenging problems in engineering practices including those in the chemical industry. Bio-inspired chemical engineering(Bio Ch E)may be recognized as a significant branch of chemical engineering. It may consist of, but not limited to, the following three aspects: 1) Chemical engineering principles and unit operations in biological systems; 2) Process engineering principles for producing existing or developing new chemical products through living ‘devices';and 3) Chemical engineering processes and equipment that are designed and constructed through mimicking(does not have to reproduce one hundred percent) the biological systems including their physical–chemical and mechanical structures to deliver uniquely beneficial performances. This may also include the bio-inspired sensors for process monitoring. In this paper, the above aspects are defined and discussed which establishes the scope of BioChE.

Laminar-to-Turbulence Transition Revealed Through a Reynolds Number Equivalence

Flow transition from laminar to turbulent mode (and vice versa)—that is, the initiation of turbulence—is one of the most important research subjects in the history of engineering. Even for pipe flow, predicting the onset of turbulence requires sophisticated instrumentation and/or direct numerical simulation, based on observing the instantaneous flow structure formation and evolution. In this work, a local Reynolds number equivalence c (ratio of local inertia effect to viscous effect) is seen to conform to the Universal Law of the Wall, where c = 1 represents a quantitative balance between the abovementioned two effects. This coincides with the wall layer thickness (y+= 1, where y+ is the dimensionless distance from the wall surface defined in the Universal Law of the Wall). It is found that the characteristic of how the local derivative of c against the local velocity changes with increasing velocity determines the onset of turbulence. For pipe flow, c - 25, and for plate flow, c - 151.5. These findings suggest that a certain combination of c and velocity (nonlinearity) can qualify the source of turbulence (i.e., generate turbulent energy). Similarly, a re-evaluation of the previous findings reveals that only the geometrically narrow domain can act locally as the source of turbulence, with the rest of the flow field largely being left for transporting and dissipating. This understanding will have an impact on the future large-scale modeling of turbulence.

Multi-Peptide Adsorption on Uncharged Solid Surfaces:A Coarse-Grained Simulation Study

On-aim control of protein adsorption onto a solid surface remains challenging due to the complex interactions involved in this process.Through computational simulation,it is possible to gain molecular-level mechanistic insight into the movement of proteins at the water-solid interface,which allows better prediction of protein behaviors in adsorption and fouling systems.In this work,a mesoscale coarse-grained simulation method was used to investigate the aggregation and adsorption processes of multiple 12-alanine(12-Ala)hydrophobic peptides onto a gold surface.It was observed that around half(46.6%)of the 12-Ala peptide chains could form aggregates.30.0% of the individual peptides were rapidly adsorbed onto the solid surface;after a crawling process on the surface,some of these(51.0%)merged into each other or merged with floating peptides to form adsorbed aggregates.The change in the solid–liquid interface due to peptide deposition has a potential influence on the further adsorption of single peptide chains and aggregates in the bulk water.Overall,the findings from this work help to reveal the mechanism of multi-peptide adsorption,and consequentially build a basis for the understanding of multi-protein adsorption onto a solid surface.

Numerical investigation of droplet pre-dispersion in a monodisperse droplet spray dryer

Monodisperse droplet spray dryers have great advantages in particle formation through spray drying because of their ability to produce uniform sized particles. Experimental analyses of this system have shown that droplets atomized through the piezoceramic nozzle need to be sufficiently well dispersed before entering the drying chamber to achieve sufficiently dried particles. However, the dispersion dynamics cannot be readily observed because of experimental limitations, and key factors influencing the dispersion state currently remain unclear. This study carried out numerical simulations for droplet dispersions in the dispersion chamber, which allow this important process to be visualized. The system- atic and quantitative analyses on the dispersion states provide valuable data for improving the design of the dispersion chamber, and optimizing the spray drying operation.