:: CBE :: Chemical and Biochemical Engineering thrust area

 

 

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) thrust area at the Universidade do Minho is a research unit in engineering and life sciences at the Centre for Biological Engineering (CEB). CBE aims at excellence in research and advanced education in chemical and biological engineering. The overall goal is to contribute for a better integration between engineering and life sciences in order to have a relevant role in the development of innovative industrial bio-processes.  

CBE activities within the Associated Laboratory IBB are focused on the thematic areas of

• Industrial Biotechnology
• Agro-Food Biotechnology
• Environmental Biotechnology and Chemistry 

 

In the Industrial Biotechnology area, relevant achievements were obtained in three main research topics – Bioreactors and Biocatalysis, Biomolecules Separation and Purification and Bioprocesses Systems Engineering. Relevant results in the first topic include the confirmation of the oscillating meso tube reactor as an improved mass transfer system for process intensification, the development of a monofibre optical probe for local measurements of the gas phase characteristics (gas phase residence time and gas phase velocity) and interfacial area three-phase (gls) systems, the development of an enhanced lipase production system by Y. lipolytica and information on relevant parameters for the production of a peach like aroma by the same non conventional yeast. For the topic Biomolecules Separation and Purification, the obtained results confirmed the effectiveness of designed porous media in bio-molecules and microorganisms separation and the use of the solvent regression (Collander) equation to correlate distribution coefficient of proteins in aqueous two-phase systems. In what concerns the third topic, relevant achievements were the launching of a new software workbench for in silico simulation of metabolic networks and the implementation of computational methods resulting from the application of experimental design techniques for intracellular models.

 

The activities in Agro-Food Biotechnology aimed at the development of safer and high quality foods and achievements with impact in the sector were the characterization of the effects of electrical fields on the growth of several food-spoiling microorganisms and their spores, as well as on the activity of important food processing enzymes and the development of innovative edible films/coatings based on new raw materials. Also with impact is the use of magnetic polysiloxane–polyvinyl alcohol (mPOS–PVA) as an efficient support for b-galactosidase in the hydrolysis of lactose and synthesis of GOS.

 

For the Environmental Biotechnology and Chemistry area, important achievements were obtained in three main topics - Advanced monitoring of biological wastewater treatment processes, Bioremediation, biosorption and environmental catalysis, and Anaerobic process for wastewater treatment and biological waste degradation with bio-energy production. In what concerns the first topic, results that deserve mention are the identification and characterization of microbial aggregates and protruding filaments in different wastewater treatment plants by image analysis and the use of geometrical descriptors  for a better identification of crucial Opercularia and Vorticella microstoma microorganisms. In the topic dealing with Bioremediation, biosorption and environmental catalysis, relevant results include the complete description of the phenomena of soils contamination with heavy metals and with PAH’s, the testing with success of a pilot plant for heavy metals biosorption and the use of the metals obtained from the contaminated systems as catalysts for VOC’s oxidation in mild conditions. For the topic on anaerobic processes, major achievements include the development, from lab-scale to pilot testing of a high rate and high load novel anaerobic reactor for the removal of long chain fatty acids from fat containing wastewater and the development of improved and stabilization of dark fermentation hydrogen production by bioaugmentation of enriched cultures using heat treated engineered granules at hyperthermophilic conditions.

 

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