92916 - Chemical Reactors Design and Biomedical Materials M

Learning outcomes

The course will introduce the design of chemical reactors, as well as material properties, technologies and selection in the pharmaceutical sector.

Course contents

Requirements/Prior knowledge

A prior knowledge and understanding of mass & energy balances, chemical kinetics and main thermodynamic elements is required to attend with profit this course. In addition, the knowledge of the main chemical reactors (batch, PFR, CSTR) and of how mass and energy balances can be applied to these reactors is required. These elements on chemical reactors are provided by the courses REATTORISTICA E OPERAZIONI UNITARIE M (for the students of the "Ingegneria di processo" curriculum) or OPERAZIONI UNITARIE DELL'INDUSTRIA ALIMENTARE M (for the students of the "Ingegneria alimentare" curriculum) or BIOREACTORS AND DOWNSTREAM PROCESSES M (for the students of the "Sustainable technologies and biotechnologies for energy and materials" curriculum). Alternatively, the courses REATTORISTICA E OPERAZIONI UNITARIE M or OPERAZIONI UNITARIE DELL'INDUSTRIA ALIMENTARE M or BIOREACTORS AND DOWNSTREAM PROCESSES M can be attended in parallel to this course.

Fluent spoken and written English is a necessary pre-requisite: all lectures and tutorials, and all study material will be in English.

In consideration of the teaching methods of this course unit, all students must attend Module 1 and 2 [https://www.unibo.it/en/services-and-opportunities/health-and-assistance/health-and-safety/online-course-on-health-and-safety-in-study-and-internship-areas] on Health and Safety online.

Course contents

Module 1:

The course, that will take place in the computer lab, will tackle the main design and rating problem relatively to the main types of chemical reactor (batch, plug flow, stirred tank), of chemical reaction (reversible, irreversible, autocatalytic, reactions in series, parallel reactions, biochemical reactions) and of thermal conditions (isotherm reactor, adiabatic reactor, reactor with an assigned thermal flux). Significant space will be given to bioreactor-based processes.

For each topic, after a short introduction that will briefly recall the main theoretical elements, the instructor will present one or more design and rating problems, that the students will solve with the aid of specific software.

Module 2:

• Fundamental structure and properties of the materials used in the biomedical field: bioceramics and bioglasses, metallic biomaterials, polymeric biomaterials.
• Structure, composition and characteristics of the main tissues involved in tissue engineering.
• Interaction between biomaterials and living tissues.
• Degradation and absorption of biomaterials.
• Surface modifications of biomaterials.
• Applications of biomaterials for the production of biomedical devices: biomaterials for dental and orthopedic implants, ophthalmic biomaterials, cardiovascular medical devices, scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, magnetic particles for biomedical applications, sutures, rapid prototyping and custom-made devices.
• Specific processes for the biomedical field: sterilization, antimicrobial surfaces.

Readings/Bibliography

Slides from the lectures are made available on Virtuale, before each class.

O. Levenspiel, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Third Edition, Wiley & Sons, New York, 1999.

H.S. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006.

M. C. Tanzi, S. Farè, G. Candiani. Foundations of biomaterials engineering. Academic Press Elsevier, 2019.

Biomaterials Science - An Introduction to Materials in Medicine. 4th Edition - May 23, 2020. Editors: William R Wagner, Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, Guigen Zhang, Michael J. Yaszemski. Elsevier, 2020.

Biomedical materials. 1^st edition 2009 or 2^nd edition 2021. Editor: R. Narayan. Springer.

Teaching methods

Module 1:

For each topic, after a short introduction that will briefly recall the main theoretical elements, the instructor will present one or more design and rating problems, that the students will solve with the aid of specific software. The course, taught in English, will take place in the computer lab.

Module 2:

The teaching methods consist in frontal lessons taught in English.

Assessment methods

Module 1:

The achievement of the learning goals will be assessed through the delivery by each student of a final report on the problems tackled, the solution techniques and the results obtained. In particular, for each design or rating problem proposed, a clear presentation of the solution methodology and an in-depth discussion of the results obtained is required, in the light of the corresponding theoretical elements.

Module 2:

Achievements will be assessed by means of an oral examination. The assessment of the learning consists in the preparation and discussion of an oral presentation on a specific topic in between those described during the course.

The presentation should contain updated information on the topic collected by: bibliographic research (reading of scientific papers on Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science... and patents), web sites, companies’ reports, press releases.

Students have to expand and implement the knowledge of the subject and its discussion by updating/adding information to the main subject. Students have to discuss at least one case study. The presentation will be followed by some questions on the topic of the presentation.

Students will receive a vote for each module, and a final vote equal to the average of the two votes.

Teaching tools

Module 1:

The design and rating problems will be solved with the aid of informatics tools. All the teaching material, produced in English, will be available on Virtuale.

Module 2:

The teaching tools relative to the second module will consist in slides in English, that will be available on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Dario Frascari

See the website of Micaela Degli Esposti