Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Issue on
e | September 2017
3
We Transform Tomorrow
Transform
The Research Newsletter of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Issue 1 | Winter 2018
Director of Research Dr Mark Dickman [email protected]
2
Welcome to the first edition of The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering’s research newsletter.
2016-17 has been a year of growth and development in our research activity. Over the last year we have set a new record for externally funded research by winning over £5.6m of competitive grants. We submitted over £20m of research applications and diversified our funding portfolio.
The portfolio of new grants is built on a solid base of innovative proposals. We have gained awards from Research Councils UK (EPSRC, BBSRC, NERC), EU, Innovate UK and Industry to support students, researchers and capital equipment. We aim to broaden our funding horizons to tackle global issues via the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), and supported by the EPSRC GCRF quick spend and Newton funds, we are building for future bids through engagement with academic, government and industry contacts across India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
During the last year we welcomed two new academics to the Department, which broadens our research capacity. Professor Meihong Wang joined from the University of Hull and brings considerable experience in Energy Systems. Dr Esther Karunakaran successfully transitioned from PDRA to lecturer and enhances our expertise in biological and environmental engineering.
Interaction with academic, government and industrial peers is essential in generating research ideas with global impact. As a department we continue to support opportunities to disseminate and develop research, we are especially proud of the world leading International Granulation Workshop and Conference organised by Professor Agba Salman, which has a 9th iteration planned for 2019. We also congratulate Professor David James and the ABC on the successful 2nd Advanced Manufacturing Centre Conference. Both international conferences were held in Sheffield and provided a great opportunity to engage with industry and academics to develop new collaborations targeting future research opportunities including studentships and R&D contracts.
In 2017 we welcomed the launch of our new research themes aligned to Grand Challenge areas – Energy, Environment, Food, Health and Water. The interconnected themes, covering Biological Engineering, Materials & Products, Processes & Systems, and Sustainability represent the significant expertise we have in the Department and offer an opportunity to tackle larger problems as part of a unified team. We continue to promote collaborations across themes targeting global issues, and look forward to another successful year. www.sheffield.ac.uk/cbe/research
Welcome
3
Our facts and figures 2016-2017
£6M Research awards granted to the department
Delegates at our conferences
Research Centres
Invested in new research facilities
PhD students
Work with us:Business Development Manager Dr Andrew Ferguson [email protected]
Publications
Funders
Live grants
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
750
5
£3.5M
164
2987
139
Our Research We seek to benefit society by creating world-leading chemical and biological engineering knowledge that fosters sustainability, prosperity and resilience. We share this knowledge and transfer it to others through publication, teaching, collaboration, licensing and entrepreneurship. By integrating these disciplines we can address major challenges and develop complete solutions, serving as an international hub for excellence.
Our Grand Challenges Energy. Environment. Food. Health. Water. These challenging and complex problems are among the most pressing issues of our time. Our research helps solve some of the most serious global, economic and societal challenges facing us all.
Biological Engineering We apply the engineering paradigm of measure, model, manipulate and manufacture to biology. We focus largely on biomanufacturing, analytics and environmental biotechnology. Expertise is across multiple host cell systems from mammalian to algae and bacteria, making high value products to low value commodities. We incorporate metabolic and protein engineering to answer industry-facing problems, and more recently have developed synthetic biology tools and novel downstream processing technologies.
Processes & Systems Our research focuses on the design, operation, modelling, control and optimisation of chemical, physical and biological bulk-product processes in continuous or batch mode. This involves taking a holistic approach to the design, modelling and operation of a whole system or plant, or consideration of individual components/operations within it.
Sustainability With ever decreasing resources and increased effects of climate change, the pressure is on us to reuse and recycle materials that would otherwise go to waste. Our aim is to achieve sustainability by developing and deploying novel technologies for low energy consumption with high selectivity for biological, chemical and physicochemical transformations that valorise biomass and waste feedstocks.
Materials & Products We discover, design, formulate and manufacture advanced materials and products with control over multiple length scales ranging from nanoscales to macroscales. We measure and predict the structure and the performance of such complex products using state-of-the-art analytical tools and sophisticated models. Our materials find applications in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, energy, food, environmental engineering and household products. Expertise includes materials chemistry, particle technology and thin film processing.
Introduction to themes and challenges
4
BIO
LOG
ICAL
ENG
INEE
RIN
G
PRO
CES
SES
& S
YSTE
MS
MAT
ERIA
LS &
PRO
DU
CTS
SUST
AIN
ABIL
ITY
Integrated Pilot Plant We are thrilled to announce a major new Integrated Pilot Plant to be installed in the Faculty of Engineering’s teaching facility ‘The Diamond’ building.
The Diamond Integrated Pilot Plant (DiPP), will feature a world leading continuous powder processing plant - the first of its kind in any UK University.
This pioneering new facility will manufacture pharmaceutical tablets from blends of model active ingredients and excipients. DiPP will include key powder processes steps for formulated product manufacture such as crystallization, blending, granulation and tableting.
DiPP will spearhead industry driven research and learning for engineering students across the globe. Researchers will target industry based problems to understand the different mechanisms in modelling the whole continuous process.
Students will use the facility to test design models for individual unit operations and also use the integrated manufacturing process for open ended research and design projects, making sure they are industry ready after graduation.
There are also opportunities to use DiPP for training and continuing education for employees in the pharmaceutical industry and those industry sectors that manufacture formulated products.
Head of Department Professor Jim Litster said;
“The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing the most significant change in manufacturing
processes in the last 30 years. It is tremendous that our students can use this cutting edge technology in their education at MEng, MSc and PhD level studies.”
“The new continuous powder processing plant emphasises the importance of complex particulate products, and formulated products more broadly, in modern chemical engineering - and we are reflecting this in our new curriculum. It is truly research led teaching.”
Project lead, Professor Agba Salman;
“Product development using continuous powder processing platforms is becoming the first choice in the pharmaceutical industry.”
“The integrated powder processing line here at Sheffield will help address knowledge gaps by experimental and modelling techniques and support industry’s drive to adopt continuous solid oral dosage manufacturing technologies.”
DiPP will be launched at the University of Sheffield in Spring 2018.
5
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
Communications Officer Mr Philip [email protected]
Living in a material world
Dr Siddharth Patwardhan discusses his new £2 million project which is a collaboration with the Department of Chemistry at Sheffield, University of Edinburgh and University of Strathclyde. The four year project is funded by the EPSRC and is hoping to have a direct impact on industrial partners.
The project is looking at inventing materials using green chemistry, how we can either get new materials made or replace existing ones by making them in a more sustainable way. Underlying this research is also the manufacturing technologies in making materials on a larger scale;
“If you look at history of materials, lots get invented but never make it to the market. The scale up is a big problem for any material that is invented, they work fantastic in the lab and they’re great materials but nobody can make them at large scale.”
“We’re looking at a biologically inspired technology that can manufacture nanomaterials and understanding what are the principles and science behind manufacturing them.”
“In process engineering terms transport properties are important, e.g. you need to move molecules around by efficient mixing, and the transport properties change non-linearly as you change the scale. We’re looking at the science behind the scale-dependence of transport properties.”
Dr Patwardhan explains that if you look at nanomaterials preparations (current industrial or lab-based) they are wasteful. An analysis has shown that waste produced from nanomaterials manufacturing is at least a thousand times more than the waste produced in bulk chemical manufacturing;
“We’re trying to address this wastefulness issue by looking at new technologies, new methods and new chemistries to make these materials - but in a bioinspired sustainable way.”
He states that as there’s not a lot of understanding about the bioinspired process, we are looking at a combination of modelling, measuring and manufacturing nanomaterials using green methods;
“We’re going to design and make industry-relevant materials using the specifications obtained from our industry partners. The models being developed can be tested and validated or refined. We will eventually be able to set up larger scale processes and test them.”
Dr Patwardhan has filed a patent on this research and is currently talking to industrial partners.
“Companies are interested because it’s going to save them a lot of resources, it opens up new products and markets with a single production line. This research could help them have a competitive advantage, plus the green benefits.”
He goes further to explain that the future of this project is where he will have the design principles and design rules for both product and processes to meet industry needs.
“If they want materials at large scale we can provide a sort of guidance map for them to use. We’ll have a manufacturing set up to test scalability of new inventions and provide independent advice to academics and industry by running tests, assessing scalability”.
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
7
Dr Siddharth V. [email protected]
Dr Robert Falconer talks to us about his interdisciplinary research into medieval brewing that combines the faculties’ of arts and humanities, science and engineering at the University of Sheffield.
His four year brewing research project is a collaboration between CBE and the Departments of Animal & Plant Sciences and Archaeology. Lee Eales (a PhD student on the project) is using the latest analytical mass spectrometry to detect beer residues on medieval drinking vessels. Mass spectrometry is able to separate and identify chemicals due to their mass.
The project aims to establish key molecules that are markers for the brewing ingredients used in the medieval period.
“It’s an interesting period of history for brewing, we know that brewing was changing in Britain during this period and we also know that people were using additives in beer other than hops,
“We selected the medieval period because we can get a lot of samples that are readily available which means we can get the analysis done.” Hops were introduced into British brewing around about 1400 but it took about 1700 before they became the dominant flavourant.”
“In London we know they weren’t using hops and they probably weren’t using any herbs either, but in the North we know from surviving documents that brewers were likely to be using bog myrtle and ground ivy in their beer.”
A pint in shining armour!
8
“We’ve interest from the beer industry, which is really exciting...”
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
9
“Over in Holland they were using a material called ‘gruit’ which was a mixture of herbs, what we don’t know is whether people were using gruit in Britain. So we’ve got a series of known unknowns, we’re going to see if we can answer them using mass spectrometry.”
Dr Falconer outlines he also wants to look at the identity of molecules associated with the brewing process:
“One of the secrets of using mass spectrometry is to use the right analytical techniques to draw out the data you are interested in. Using mass spectroscopy we can identify chemicals in beer that aren’t present in the original malt or hops.”
“We can also identify where in the brewing process these chemicals are formed and identify their precursors. It means we can understand the brewing process in more depth than previously possible and advise on how to modify
the brewing process to get a higher quality beer.” What Dr Falconer would like to do at the end of the research is to see if he can recreate a medieval beer:
“We’ve interest from the beer industry, which is really exciting and we’re having a visit from one of the chief brewers from one of the large beer corporations soon – I can’t say much at this early stage so watch this space!”
“There’s tremendous interest in novel beers so the idea of recreating medieval beers is obviously of interest to people from a personal level and commercial level. Your next pint at the pub could be a medieval one!”
Dr Robert Falconer [email protected]
10
June 2017 saw CBE host the 8th International Granulation Workshop in Sheffield. The Workshop consisted of a three day Granulation Conference and two day Granulation Course, with 400 attendees.
The Conference, took place in Sheffield’s prestigious Cutlers’ Hall and was opened by Professor Agba Salman, followed by Professor Peter Kleinebudde (Heinrich Heine University) who opened with the plenary lecture: ‘Continuous manufacturing of pharmaceutical products’. Further plenary lectures were given, by leading experts from Academia and Industry within the field of Granulation.
The second day plenary lecture was given by Professor Stefan Palzer: ‘Quo vadis particle technology?’, a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield who currently serves as the Director of the Nestle Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In addition to the plenary lectures, the Sheffield Particle Products Group had a very strong presence in the parallel sessions which ranged in topics, including: Disintegration/Dissolution, Cohesive, Wet granulation and Twin Screw Granulation.
Poster prizes were also given by industry (GSK, iChemE, AstraZeneca, TTC & Alexanderwerk) for topics ranging from best pharmaceutically relevant poster to most innovative research.
During the conference, the outstanding contributions to the granulation community of Professor James Michaels (University of Delaware) & Prof. Anders Rasmuson (Chalmers University) were recognised.
The Granulation Course provided a broad introduction to granulation science. Attendees ranged from PhD students to professionals from industry and everything in between. People came from across the world from as far west as Canada and east as South Korea.
The course and practical sessions consisted of a series of lectures from experts in academia and global industry companies (AstraZeneca, P&G, Nestle, GSK, Hallidex, Alexanderwerk, University of Leicester, EIRICH & Addivant Global Technology).
During the awards ceremony, Professor Salman recognized Jiankai Yang for his outstanding contribution to the organisation of both the Granulation Course and the Conference. According to Professor Salman, “without Jiankai’s hard work and dedication, this workshop would not have been possible.”
Professor Salman also acknowledged the contribution of the PhD students in his group to helping make sure that the workshop ran smoothly.
The workshop was closed by Professor Jim Litster, with the announcement of the next workshop in 2019, which will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Additional information and pictures from the Course and Conference can be found at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/agglom/2017
8th International Granulation Workshop
Professor Agba Salman [email protected]
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
11
Fighting biofilms
Dr Annette Taylor [email protected]
Dr Annette Taylor and Dr Esther Karunakaran are part of a new Research Group the Sheffield Collaboratorium for Antimicrobial Resistance And Biofilms (SCARAB).
The group are looking at how harmful bacteria form complex communities as part of the infection process, these communities are called ‘biofilms’ and if they form in human tissues it can lead to long-term chronic infections. SCARAB will bring together doctors, scientists and engineers to discover new ways of fighting biofilm formation, leading to the faster development of urgently needed therapies for these infections.
“The group spans the Faculty of Medicine and Material Science here at the University we’re looking at biofilm formation in tissues because there’s an increasing level of resistance of bacteria to normal antibiotics. We’re then devising different strategies for making them less resistant to antibiotics, or, alternative ways of preventing the biofilms forming in the first place.”
Dr Taylor describes how these biofilms could be in lots of different environments such as ulcers in your teeth and your stomach, wherever bacteria form within the human body and start to cause an infection;
“One outcome will be a better understanding of how biofilms are formed and why they protect bacteria against the external environment, what is
it about biofilms that allows bacteria to resist antimicrobial treatment in general?”
“We’re trying to set up new collaborations to tackle these medical issues, we’re wanting to make it a multi-disciplinary and multi-pronged approach to the problem. So, we’re bringing in the engineering expertise alongside microbiology, tissues and immunology.”
SCARAB are building a new laboratory and a new facility (funded by Innovate UK) and also will be working with the NHS and pharmaceutical companies to test various products and solutions. “These biofilms also form in water pipes and other places such as food packaging where they are considered a health hazard. So I can see us developing this from a much broader perspective in the future.”
“If we understand better the process of biofilm formation we can also start to think, where might we use these processes in a positive way? Researchers already are using biofilms for example to strengthen cement! So, there’s lots of potential to use them for environmental applications, rather than just trying to eradicate them.”
“It’s a fantastic project and it’s wonderful for me because I’ve got a background in modelling chemical reactions in complex reactors, this is like the ultimate application of that in a way - it’s all of these chemical processes but taking place inside a living organism!”
Dr Esther Karunakaran [email protected]
12
Despite improved recycling infrastructure and public awareness, the UK still sends a staggering 17 million tonnes of municipal solid waste into landfill every year.
This leads to the build-up of leachate, the liquid which drains from a landfill site. Leachate contains trace chemicals, which can have strong contaminating effects on the environment and effective treatment methods are required. Dr Pandhal’s research project aims to demonstrate an integrated process for leachate treat waste and resource recovery.
Viridor Waste Management Ltd is the third largest waste management organisation in the UK, owning over 40 sites. Approximately half the sites use foul sewers to carry contaminated wastewater to a sewage works for treatment, the rest is either transported using tankers or released to surface waters.
Dr Pandhal’s research will see pre-processed leachate fed into a photobioreactor and growth and operating parameters carefully monitored.
“For the last two years we have been culturing microbial consortia isolated from a landfill leachate pond - a site close to Sheffield. We’ve been optimising the consortia to be able to grow faster and improve heavy metal uptake, engineering the community and not individual cells.”
“The department recently saw an installation of a new photobioreactor at the Arthur Willis Environment Centre (AWEC), for those that don’t know a photobioreactor is a bioreactor that utilizes a light source to cultivate phototrophic microorganisms.”
“These organisms use photosynthesis to generate biomass from light and carbon dioxide and include plants, mosses, macroalgae, microalgae, cyanobacteria and purple bacteria. Within the artificial environment
Pondering on algae with new photobioreactor Dr Jagroop Pandhal
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
13
of a photobioreactor, specific conditions are carefully controlled for respective species. A photobioreactor allows much higher growth rates and purity levels than anywhere in nature or habitats similar to nature.”
He goes further to explain the data from the photobioreactor will be used in a techno economic assessment for Viridor but also other end-users. An easy-to-use Resource Recovery calculator will also be created. The process will be filmed in time-lapse and used to make a video for knowledge exchange and educational purposes.
“The ultimate aim is to demonstrate the progress of the NERC funded research up technology
readiness levels with industrial, societal and environmental impact, together with economic benefits for the project partner and wider waste management community.”
“The algal biomass can subsequently be utilised as a resource, from fuels to plastics, as well as recovering metals. Now we aim to illustrate this at scale and perform a techno economic assessment with our collaborators.”
When you next throw your rubbish into a bin spare a second imagining its journey to a landfill site, components of it leaching into a pond and subsequently providing food for our algal consortia. This will provide multiple resources for you to meet on a shop’s shelf again!
Dr Jagroop PandhalE: [email protected]
Photobio
reacto
r
14
How maggots could help millionsDr James McGregor is looking at how maggots could help solve our food waste problems.
Every year roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets lost or wasted - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes. Food losses and waste amounts to roughly £522 billion in industrialized countries and £238 billion in developing countries. In the UK alone we binned £13 billion worth of food in 2016.
Dr McGregor is working with Entomics Biosystems Ltd. on how we can manage eliminating our organic waste more effectively and they are doing this using the larvae of the black solider fly:
“The maggots feed on decaying organic matter, so they will eat the organic or food waste and as they grow into the next stage of their life cycle they move away from the waste and find somewhere to turn into flies.”
“At that lifecycle stage you can harvest the black soldier fly larvae. So you’ve reduced your food waste by over half (as they’ve eaten it!) and that solid can be used directly as a fertilizer.”
This is all happening at Entomics’ facility in Cambridgeshire, researchers have trays filled with organic waste which the larvae are feeding on:
“We’re looking at what products can be derived directly from the larvae. The terminology used for this is insect biocatalysis.”
“The larvae are eating the waste and then turning that in their body into organic oils. They’re largely composed of fatty oily compounds, lauric acid etc. We’re extracting those oils to use as
chemical feedstock, in order to create more valuable chemicals. There’s three products that we can get from the larvae; fertilizer, bio oil and proteinaceous animal feed.”
Another product to be derived from the maggots is chitin, Dr McGregor explains how this can be converted into chitosan which is an organic polymer:
“Chitin comes from the exoskeleton of the larvae, after it’s eaten the waste and turned into flies and the derivative Chitosan can be used to make bio plastics. It can also be used to make solid catalysts to accelerate catalytic reactions. One of the reactions you can catalyse with chitin is biodiesel from the organic oils.”
“Biodiesel isn’t valuable, but it’s what other valuable chemicals we can potentially make from this – ultimately making waste management more economically viable by having a product that you can sell.”
Dr McGregor hopes to make urban environments more resilient, believing societies have the potential to process their food waste and generate fuel, which could have potential for millions of people:
“It could be exported into developing countries, e.g. you can have organic waste centres in town centres which are able to generate a valuable product.”
“So in a nutshell we’re using by-products and waste materials as a valuable resource.”
Dr James [email protected]
15
Issue 1 | W
inter 2018
The price of health
Emma Chandler [email protected]
Emma Chandler is in the first year of her PhD, she’s looking at reducing the price of biopharmaceuticals and raising their quality.
My research involves looking at a cheaper method of manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. Biopharmaceuticals are therapeutic proteins used in medicine and are more complex than traditional pharmaceutical compounds. These therapeutic proteins are manufactured using living systems, for instance mammalian cells. As a result, more complicated structures can be produced than those in traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.
I’m looking at developing a means for continuous purification of biopharmaceuticals. The purification process is called aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE). In aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS), there are two separate liquid phases and dependent upon the conditions, solutes and particulates separate into one or other of these phases. A target protein can be partitioned into one phase and the contaminants into another, thereby purifying the target protein. High product purity is essential to meet health and safety requirements in the industry.
ATPS is well suited to run in a continuous manner. Continuous manufacturing can both reduce the cost and increase product quality, so it is preferable for the industry to move away
from their heavy reliance on batch processes. This will help meet the demand for these drugs, increase their availability and enable the production of medicines for less prevalent diseases.
There is a lack of industry uptake of ATPE because of poor understanding of the phase forming mechanisms. This leads to a lack of reliable modelling of the system and a subsequent need for a trial and error approach in both process and equipment design. To enable the process to work effectively, understanding of the phase and protein separation will need to be improved and more accurate modelling to describe this will be required.
I am developing and using techniques that analyse the system’s separation to improve the understanding of ATPE. Using data I will then build an improved model to describe the phase separation of the system, something which is essential for optimizing equipment and process design. This model will then be tested and utilised to optimise the design of prototype equipment for the process.
I hope that I will be able to use the model and the prototype equipment to design and optimise a multistage ATPE process used for the purification of therapeutic proteins.
If you’d like to know more about my research get in touch with me.
The University of SheffieldSir Robert Hadfield Building,Mappin Street,Sheffield S1 3JD
www.sheffield.ac.uk/cbe/research
@CBESheffield
facebook/CBESheffield
