MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 10.37 · Spring 2007

Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering

Subjects: Biology · Chemistry · Engineering

Art: Demachy, Jacques-François, 1728-1803, L'art du Distillateur Liquoriste: Contenant le Bruleur…, 1773 · Public domain

Instructors: Prof. K. Dane Wittrup, Prof. William Green, Jr.
Term: Spring 2007
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 21 problem sets · 1 lecture note · 1 reading · 62 other files · 4 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 10.37 Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering, Spring 2007, Prof. K. Dane Wittrup, Prof. William Green, Jr. — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Has MIT solutions 8 files in this course are named by MIT as solutions.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

How this course was organized

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A lecture sequence of 25 items is confirmed. Assignment and exam materials exist too, but MIT's own order for them could not be verified, so they're shown as materials below rather than a sequence.

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Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Readings

Error in Fogler: Superficial Velocity or Actual VelocityPDF Download

Lecture Notes

25 files

Assignments

39 files

Exams

8 files

Tools

10 files

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. K. Dane Wittrup, Prof. William Green, Jr., 10.37 Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering, Spring 2007.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2007 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Readings

Lecture Notes

Assignments

Exams

Tools

Lecture 2: The reaction rate and reaction mechanisms: Definition in terms of reacting compounds and reaction extent; rate laws, Arrhenius equation, elementary, reversible, non-elementary, catalytic reactions. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 3: Kinetics of cell growth and enzymes. Cell growth kinetics; substrate uptake and product formation in microbial growth; enzyme kinetics, Michaelis-Menten rate form. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 4: Reaction mechanisms and rate laws: Reactive intermediates and steady state approximation in reaction mechanisms. Rate-limiting step. Chain reactions. Pyrolysis reactions. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 5: Continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Reactions in a perfectly stirred tank. Steady-state CSTR. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 6: Concentration that optimizes desired rate. Selectivity vs. Conversion. Combining reactors with separations. (WHG) ( PDF ) Lecture 6 correction ( PDF )

Lecture 7: Batch reactor: Equations, reactor sizing for constant volume and variable volume processes. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 8: The plug flow reactor. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 9: Reactor size comparisons for PFR and CSTR. Reactors in series and in parallel. How choice of reactor affects selectivity vs. conversion. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 10: Non-ideal reactor mixing patterns. Residence time distribution. Tanks in series model. Combinations of ideal reactors. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 11: Non isothermal reactors. Equilibrium limitations, stability. Derivation of energy balances for ideal reactors; equilibrium conversion, adiabatic and nonadiabatic reactor operation. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 12: Data collection and analysis. Experimental methods for the determination of kinetic parameters of chemical and enzymatic reactions; determination of cell growth parameters; statistical analysis and model discrimination. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 13: Biological reactors - chemostats. Theory of the chemostat. Fed batch or semi-continuous fermentor operation. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 14: Kinetics of non-covalent bimolecular interactions. Significance; typical values and diffusion limit; approach to equilibrium; multivalency. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 15: Gene expression and trafficking dynamics. Approach to steady state; receptor trafficking. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 16: Catalysis. Inorganic and enzyme catalysts and their properties; kinetics of heterogeneous catalytic reactions; adsorption isotherms, derivation of rate laws; Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 17: Mass transfer resistances. External diffusion effects. Non-porous packed beds and monoliths, immobilized cells. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 18: External mass-transfer resistance: Gas-liquid reactions in multiphase systems. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 19: Oxygen transfer in fermentors. Applications of gas-liquid transport with reaction. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 20: Reaction and diffusion in porous catalysts. Effective diffusivity, internal and overall effectiveness factor, Thiele modulus, apparent reaction rates. (KDW) ( PDF )

Lecture 21: Reaction and diffusion in porous catalysts (cont.). Packed bed reactors. (WHG) ( PDF )

Lecture 22: Combined internal and external transport resistances. (WHG) ( PDF ) Biot numbers review. ( PDF ) (Courtesy of David Adrian. Used with permission.)

Lecture 23: Pulling it all together; applications to energy/chemicals industry. Presentation of current research. (WHG)

Lecture 24: Pulling it all together; applications to bioengineering and medicine. Presentation of current research. (KDW)

Lecture 25: Course review. (WHG) ( PDF )