ChE 3BK3: Bio-Reaction Engineering

Assignment #7
Due: November 1, 2023
1. You want to run a continuous enzyme-catalysed process and you plan to immobilized the
enzymes within 1mm radius beads. Your CSTR has a 10 L capacity and you want a flowrate of 2
L/min. Your inlet substrate concentration is 20 mg/L and you want your outlet product
concentration to be 18 mg/L. Your enzyme obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with Vm” = 5000
mg/L/min, Km = 5 mg/L and De = 2.9*10-5 m2/min.
a. Assume there is no external mass transfer limitation for substrate to get to the surface of
the beads. What volume of beads would you need?
b. If kL = 5.0 *10-2 m/min, what volume of beads do you need now?

2. A simple strain of an anaerobic bacterium was growing on a simple medium containing methanol
as a substrate. The substrate concentration, cell concentration, and time is given in the table
below.
a) Show the corresponding growth curve and point out the 5 growth phases directly on the
curve. In your own words, describe what occurs in each stage (1 sentence for each phase).
b) Calculate the maximum growth rate (𝜇𝑚𝑎𝑥 ), the yield on substrate (𝑌𝑋/𝑆 ), and the mass
doubling time (𝜏𝑑 ).

Time (h) S (g/L) X (g/L)

0 60 1.04
1 54 1.05
2 49 1.35
4 44 2.45
6 37 4.05
10 30 10.40
16 22 37.86
20 14 41.04
22 9 41.47
24 6 41.86
26 4 37.47
28 3 32.12
30 0 26.11

c) Consider the following growth profile for an anaerobic bacterium. Define the (i) type of
growth observed, and (ii) the cause of this type of growth.
Notes:
• All assignments must be submitted to the Avenue dropbox by 11:59 pm on the specifieddue
date. You may hand-write the solution and use an app like Camscanner to convert to a pdf.
Please ensure the file is legible!
• Late assignments will be docked 20% per day each day that passes after the due date
• We will use Turnitin.

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It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information
on the various kinds of a academic dishonesty please refer to the AcademicIntegrity Policy,
specifically Appendix 3, located at:
http://www.mcmaster.ca/senate/academic/ac_integrity.htm
The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Copying or using unauthorized aids on tests and examinations.
2. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one’s own or for which other
credit has been obtained.
3. Improper collaboration in group work.