ECTS credits ECTS credits: 4.5
ECTS Hours Rules/Memories Student's work ECTS: 74.25 Hours of tutorials: 2.25 Expository Class: 18 Interactive Classroom: 18 Total: 112.5
Use languages Spanish, Galician, English
Type: Ordinary Degree Subject RD 1393/2007 - 822/2021
Departments: Chemistry Engineering
Areas: Chemical Engineering
Center Higher Technical Engineering School
Call: First Semester
Teaching: With teaching
Enrolment: Enrollable | (Yes)
The focus of this course will be on building the chemical and biological engineering principles taught in previous academic years. This will provide a deeper insight into the biochemical processes and the biotechnology industry.
This course will include lectures to introduce biosystems and bioprocesses and to develop a strategy towards their engineering analysis. Prior knowledge of calculus and chemical engineering is required.
The contents included in the Official Guide of the Bachelor's Degreee in Chemical Engineering Graduate will be developed:
“Biotechnology and biochemical engineering. Biology of cells and microorganisms of industrial interest. Types of enzymes and microorganisms. Microbial and enzymatic kinetics. Fundamentals of design and analysis of biological reactors. Mass transfer, heat transport, and application of balances to microbial systems. Sterilisation. Biotechnological processes.”
The contents of the course are structured in the following seven units:
Unit 1. Introduction to Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering
Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering. Basic definitions. Applications. Description of industrial bioprocesses.
Unit 2. Fundamentals of microbiology and biochemistry
Microorganisms in Biology. Concept of cell and types of cellular organisation. Prokaryotes, morphology and basic structure. Eukaryotes, structural characteristics (mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, lysosomes, nucleus, cell membrane). Genetic engineering. Cloning. Recombinant DNA formation. Biotechnology products obtained from genetic engineering.
Unit 3. Enzyme kinetics
Enzyme characteristics and types. Enzyme kinetics. Michaelis-Menten model. Inhibition. Modification of enzyme activity. Enzyme immobilisation. Applications.
Unit 4. Microbial kinetics
Cell culture. Microbial growth. Environmental factors. Classification and models for microbial growth. Monod model. Inhibition. Immobilisation.
Unit 5. Bioreactor design
Basic concepts for bioreactor design. Mass and energy balances. Stirred tank reactors: batch, fed-batch and continuous operation. Plug-flow reactors. Aeration. Agitation. Sterilisation.
Unit 6. Non-conventional bioreactors
Description of the characteristics and operation of the main non-conventional bioreactors: fixed bed, fluidised bed, air-lift, membrane bioreactors, photobioreactors, biphasic bioreactors…
Unit 7. Separation processes in bioprocesses
General characteristics. Biomass separation. Cell disruption. Membrane-based separations. Extraction. Adsorption. Chromatography. Other separation and purification techniques. General considerations on separation sequences.
Basic bibliography
Gòdia Casablancas, F.; López Santín, J. Ingeniería Bioquímica. Ed. Síntesis, 1998. ISBN 84-7738-611-0. Library code: A160 1; 160 1.
Bailey, J.E.; Ollis, D.F. Biochemical engineering fundamentals, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, 1986. ISBN 0-07-003212-2. Library code: 160 22
Complementary bibliography
Díaz, M. Ingeniería de bioprocesos. Paraninfo, 2012. ISBN: 9788428381239. Library code: 160 24
Atkinson, B.; Mavituna, F. Biochemical engineering and biotechnology handbook. Nature Press, 1985. ISBN:0-333-33274-1.Library code: 160 14
Aiba, S.; Humphrey, A.E.; Millis, N.F. Biochemical engineering, 2nd ed. Academic Press, 1973. ISBN:0-12-045052-6. Library code: 160 15
Najafpour, G. Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, 2nd ed. Elsevier, 2015. ISBN: 9780444633774.
Specific skills:
o (CQ.1.2) Knowledge on biotechnology.
o (CQ.1.4) Chemical reaction engineering.
o (CQ.2.1) Capacity for the analysis and design of processes and products.
General skills:
o (CG.3) Knowledge of basic and technological subjects, that enable the students to learn new methods and theories, and that provide them with versatility for adapting to new situations.
o (CG.4) Capacity to solve problems with initiative, decision making, creativity, and critical thinking; and to communicate and disseminate knowledge, abilities and skills in the field of industrial chemical engineering.
Transferable skills:
o (CT.3) Communication, both oral and written, in native language as well as in some foreign language.
o (CT.6) Problem solving.
o (CT.8) Teamworking.
o (CT.11) Capacity to communicate with experts from other knowledge fields.
o (CT.19) Independent learning.
Regarding skills CQ.1.2, CG.3 and CG.4, safety principles will be applied in the study of certain topics (examples: sterilisation, biological risks). The specific tasks used to evaluate these skills and how they are evaluated are indicated in the Teaching Methodology and Assessment System sections.
The teaching of the theoretical contents will be performed via master lectures where the contents will be explained and justified. The instructor will publish in the Virtual Classroom of the course all the information regarding the units that will be developed along the semester. All the students enrolled in this course have free access to the Virtual Classroom. Questions regarding key aspects will be raised by instructor to stimulate lively discussions in the class, with the final goal of promoting learning and active participation in the classroom.
The seminars will consist of problem solving. The students will solve some of the problems by themselves. In these sessions an ongoing dialogue with the students on various theoretical and practical aspects will be established to maximize the training output. The spreadsheet used for the solution of problems will be mainly Excel. In this way, the following skills will be developed: CQ.1.2, CQ.1.4, CQ.2.1, CG.3, CG.4, CT.6, and CT.19.
The students must develop a work in group in the group tutorials. The works will have to be subsequently presented orally. In this way, the skills CG.3, CT.3, and CT.8 are covered.
A technical visit to an interesting industrial plant will be programmed, subjected to the availability of funds to cover it and to the regulations in terms of public health that may apply during the semester. Coordination with the course “Mass Transfer” will be sought in planning this technical visit. This activity pretends to specifically develop, among others, the skill CT.11.
If the semester develops under a scenario of adapted normality (scenario 1), all activities will be carried out in-person. If a scenario of distancing with partial restrictions to physical presence applies (scenario 2), the master lectures and the group tutorials will be carried out in a remote and synchronous mode through MS-Teams, and the technical visit will not be carried out. If the closure of the teaching buildings is ordered (scenario 3), the technical visit will not be carried out, and all remaining activities will be performed remotely (MS-Teams for synchronous activities and Moodle for non-synchronous activities).
Ongoing assessment of the learning process will be carried out by means of different assignments, which can be oral/written presentations of a topic, problem solving, teamworking, tests, etc. (CQ.1.2, CQ.1.4, CQ.2.1, CG.3, CG.4, CT.6, CT.19); including the work of the group tutorial (CQ.1.2, CQ.1.4, CQ.2.1, CG.3, CG.4, CT.3, CT.8, CT.11, CT.19) and the technical visit (CT.11) in case that it can be carried out. This ongoing assessment will establish the base for a first qualification, corresponding to 40 % of the final overall mark: 15 % the group tutorial and 25 % the rest. The student will carry out a theoretical-practical exam at the end of the course (CQ.1.2, CQ.1.4, CQ.2.1, CG.3, CG.4, CT.3, CT.6), corresponding to 60 % of the final overall mark and containing both theoretical questions and problem solving (20 % and 40 % of the mark, respectively). A minimum overall mark of 5.0 on a basis of 10 will be needed to pass the course, with at least a minimum mark of 3.5 over 10 in the exam.
If the course is not passed in the first call, the mark of the ongoing assessment (including the group tutorial) will be kept for the second call, so that only the exam will be repeated. As above, it will be necessary to obtain an overall mark of 5.0 on a basis of 10 to pass the course, and to have a minimum of 3.5 over 10 in the new exam. Partial marks (ongoing assessment, group tutorials…) are not kept from one academic year to another one.
Students that participate in less than three of the proposed activities for the ongoing assessment will be graded as “Not-shown”.
The assessment system will be the same indepedently of the scenario in which the semester be developed (in-person or remote). The only difference will be that the activities to be assessed will be performed either in-person in the physical classroom or remotely through the on-line teaching resources of the USC, according to what be established by the pertinent authorities.
If it is detected that any assignments or tests were carried out in a fraudulent manner by the students, the document "Regulations for assessment of the academic performance of the students and for revision of marks" ("Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico ods estudants e de revisión das cualificacións") will be of application.
The course has a workload of 4.5 ECTS, which represents an overall work load for the student of 4.5 x 25 = 112.5 h. The distribution of the personal work hours for each activity involved in the discipline is detailed below:
Activity......................Classroom.....Personal work....ECTS
Expositive lectures............28.0…….........34.0...............2.5
Interactive lectures............9.0..............11.0...............0.8
Group tutorials...................1.0...............4.0...............0.2
SUBTOTAL.......................38.0..............49.0...............3.5
Individualised tutorials........1.0................2.0...............0.1
Exam and revision..............5.0...............17.5...............0.9
TOTAL.............................44.0.............68.5...............4.5
It is recommended that the students take simultaneously (or have already passed) the course on Chemical Reaction Engineering. It is also recommended that they have passed the course Fundamentals of Chemical Processes.
There will be two groups in this course, using different languages: one will be taught in Galician, and the other one in English.
Those students interested in obtaining additional information about questions related to the organisation of teaching and research in the School can check the sites of the Department of Chemical Engineering (e-mail addresses, staff offices and telephone numbers, research activities) and the School of Engineering (description of the degree, general organisation of the School, timetibles and calendars of lectures and exams, administrative forms) within the webpage of the USC: http://www.usc.gal
The facial mask must be used by the students at all times during their presence in the School. All indications by the health authorities and the USC for health protection against COVID-19 must be followed rigorously. Use mask, apply hydrogel, or wash hands with water and soap according to the recommendations, and, whenever possible, increase the physical distance with colleagues and instructor in the classroom.
In the case of remote teaching, it will be necessary to have a computer with microphone and camera for carrying out the different activities programmed along the semester.
* CONTINGENCY PLAN (in connection with the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemia): see the Galician or Spanish versions of this programme.
Maria Angeles Val Del Rio
- Department
- Chemistry Engineering
- Area
- Chemical Engineering
- mangeles.val [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: LOU (Organic Law for Universities) PhD Assistant Professor
Óscar Rodríguez Figueiras
- Department
- Chemistry Engineering
- Area
- Chemical Engineering
- Phone
- 881816704
- oscar.rodriguez [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: Temporary PhD professor
Hector Rodriguez Martinez
Coordinador/a- Department
- Chemistry Engineering
- Area
- Chemical Engineering
- Phone
- 881816804
- hector.rodriguez [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: Temporary PhD professor