Chemical Engineering Approaches to Challenges in Energy and Biomedicine

Abstracts

The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy: A New Paradigm in Transformational Energy Research
Eric Toone, PhD, U.S. Department of Energy, ARPA–E

In Spring of 2009 President Obama announced $400M in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for a new agency—the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA–E, an Agency created in 2007 through the America COMPETES Act. ARPA–E was created to fund high risk, high reward transformational research to reduce energy related emissions, reduce imports of energy from foreign sources, improve energy efficiency in all economic sectors, and ensure American technological lead in advanced energy technologies. In less than three years the agency has awarded over $500M in support of 182 projects across the energy landscape, including renewable energy, biofuels, building efficiency, carbon capture, the grid and the electrification of transportation. This talk will describe the history and mission of ARPA–E, how the Agency and its projects differ from other branches of the Department of Energy, and highlight some of the revolutionary technologies currently supported by ARPA–E focused on sustainability.

Electrofuel Production Using Ammonia or Iron as Redox Mediators in Reverse Microbial Fuel Cells
Scott Banta, PhD, Columbia University

The production of electrofuels requires the efficient transport of electrons from an electrochemical system into a biological system. We have approached this challenge by identifying natural chemical mediators that 1) can be easily reduced electrochemically and 2) are natural substrates for different bacterial strains, thus eliminating the need to engineer this aspect of primary metabolism in the biological hosts. In our first project we have constructed a reverse microbial fuel cell using the ammonia oxidizing bacteria, N. europaea. These cells grow planktonically and they efficiently oxidize ammonia to nitrite while fixing carbon dioxide. We have developed an electrochemical reactor to reduce the nitrite back to ammonia so that we are producing biomass from electricity and air. We have recently engineered the N. europaea cells to produce isobutanol, which is a transportation infrastructure compatible biofuel. In a second project we are working with A. ferrooxidans, which is an iron oxidizing bacteria used in biomining operations. The oxidized iron can be readily reduced electrochemically, and efforts are underway to engineer these cells to make isobutanol as well. As these processes are developed and optimized, they may be able to produce biofuels and other petroleum-derived chemicals from electricity and air.

Engineering and Constructing Today's and Tomorrow's Large Energy Infrastructure Projects
Amos Avidan, PhD, Bechtel Corporation

Today's large energy infrastructure projects present more challenges to project developers and owners, engineering and construction contractors, governments and regulatory agencies, banks, local communities and society as a whole. Energy projects such as power plants, petroleum producing and processing and petrochemical facilities, LNG plants, and others are getting larger and more complex and they face increasing and occasionally uncertain regulatory and permitting regimes. At the same time, new technologies are presenting new opportunities to improve life-cycle efficiencies, lower emissions, increase safety and lower risk to the public. Automation continues to have a major impact on all aspects of project development, construction and operations, and increasingly, it is the management of information that is the focus of owners and contractors.
 
I will survey major current trends and future directions impacting large energy projects and use examples of technology breakthroughs in information management, project planning and execution, and the potential impact of new technologies such as modular nuclear reactors, renewables and the global impact of increasing supplies of non-conventional natural gas reserves.

The Quest for the 100,000 Cycle Battery: Using Low Cost Materials for Grid Energy Storage Applications
Dan Steingart, PhD, The City College of New York, CUNY Energy Institute

Electrochemical energy storage induces headaches in industrialists for the same reason it provides such fertile ground for academics: a working, rechargeable battery represents a tight coupling of multiphase phenomena across mechanical, thermal and electrical domains. The properties of battery materials have been well classified in the literature in an anatomical fashion, but systematic treatments of the composite battery electrode and complete storage device have been less rigorous. By understanding and compensating for certain material disadvantages through complete cell modification, we have preliminary evidence that the zinc alkaline system can meet grid scale requirements (for both cost and performance). We are now furthering these initial finding throughs the use of in situ mechanical testing and monitoring methods, where we hope to be able to better quantify battery failure modes.
 

The Role of Academics in Pharmaceutical Process Development
Mauricio Futran, PhD, Rutgers University

The Pharmaceutical Industry is undergoing major changes. More than $100 Billion in patent protected products are facing generic competition this decade. One of the most important changes in “Big Pharma” is an evolution from the vertically integrated model to a distributed one, where innovation, project execution and manufacturing are outsourced, often to Asia. Pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing are included in this trend. The new Pharmaceutical supply chain spans the globe, and involves companies with varying degrees of technical sophistication and operational discipline. Ensuring the supply and quality of pharmaceutical products requires a renewed emphasis on acquiring fundamental understanding during development so that the process can be controlled effectively in this array of suppliers. Furthermore the time and cost of development must be reduced.

This environment represents an opportunity for the academic community to contribute the science and technology needed in process development and manufacturing. While the FDA has created their “Quality by Design” initiative, it is not possible for every company around the world to develop this independently. The talk presents examples of current or potential academic contributions, such as predictive model control for crystallization, the science of particulate systems and the development of continuous manufacturing for solid oral dosage forms, and perspectives for the use of continuous approaches in developing biomanufactured products.

Engineering Nano-composites by Mimicking Nature's Ability to Self-assemble Biomolecules
Raymond Tu, PhD, The City College of New York

In nature, biological molecules form interfaces that assemble patterns of chemical functionality with exceptional precision. The role of dynamics during the assembly of biological molecules appears to be important for processes such as biomineralization. Our work applies periodically sequenced sheet-forming peptides at interfaces to explore the dynamics of assembly in order to template mineral growth. We rationally design a set of peptide molecules to have amphiphilic properties and a propensity for sheet like secondary structure. These model system allow us to explore our underlying hypothesis that the time scale of the phase-transitions of the peptide at the interface defines the length-scale of the crystalline phase, mimicking biology's strategy to grow composite materials.

Population Balance Modeling of Biological Systems
Rohit Ramachandran, PhD, Rutgers University 

Biological systems are intrinsically heterogeneous and, consequently, their mathematical descriptions should account for this heterogeneity as it often influences the dynamic behavior of the individual cells. For example, in the cell cycle dependent production of proteins, it is necessary to account for the distribution of the individual cells with respect to their position in the cell cycle as this has a strong influence on protein production. A second notable example is the formation of cancerous cells. In this case, the failure of regulatory mechanisms results in the transition of somatic cells to their cancerous state. Therefore, in developing the corresponding mathematical model, it is necessary to consider both the different states of the cells as well as their regulation. In this regard, the population balance equation is the ideal mathematical framework to capture cell population heterogeneity as it elegantly takes into account the distribution of cell populations with respect to their intracellular state together with the phenomena of cell birth, division, differentiation and recombination. Conventional numerical techniques are inefficient for the solution of the formulated population balance models and this warrants the development of novel, tailor-made algorithms. This work focuses on novel solution techniques toward population balance modeling of biological systems.

Biomaterials for Stem Cell Tissue Engineering
Treena Arinzeh, PhD, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Stem cells have become a promising cell source in the tissue engineering field. Intense studies have been focused at the cell and molecular biology levels on understanding the relationship between stem cell growth and terminal differentiation in an effort to control these processes. Recent discoveries have shown that the microenvironment can influence stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, which has had a tremendous impact on identifying potential strategies for using these cells effectively in the body.
 
This presentation will describe studies examining the influence of biomaterials on stem cell behavior with an emphasis on biomaterials design and chemistry that impart appropriate cues to stem cells to affect their behavior. Specifically, surface wettability can influence stem cell osteogenesis, which is relevant for bone repair applications. Hydrophobic polymers and their use with bioactive ceramics to create bioactive composites have been identified to greatly enhance the expression of bone cell markers. Biomaterial design such as fiber and pore size dimension can also greatly influence differentiation. Studies using electrospun polylactic acid (PLLA) having fiber dimensions varying from the nano to micron-scale influenced chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells. The resulting changes in pore size also had a significant effect, but variations in mechanical properties played a minor role. The effect of electromechanical properties of polymeric materials, specifically piezoelectric polymers, on stem cell differentiation along bone, cartilage and neural lineages will also be discussed.