(6in) Membrane Technology and Bioengineering for Sustainable Products and Processes

Saurav Datta, PhD

Assistant
Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Research Interests: Membrane Technology and Bioengineering
for Sustainable Products and Processes

Recent years have witnessed
worldwide major thrust in moving towards sustainable and smart economy by
integrating sound scientific principles and breakthrough engineering practices.
We embrace that opportunity and envision employing the fundamentals of Chemical
Engineering, Chemistry and Biotechnology to develop sustainable products and
processes. Our research activities encompass the following two core areas: (1) Biomimetic/bioinspired membranes
for advanced bioprocessing, and (2) Biofuels and biobased
chemicals formation.

1.
Biomimetic/bioinspired
membranes for advanced bioprocessing

• Engineering enzyme immobilized membrane bioreactor: Enzymes enable technologies with higher efficiency (high specificity of enzymes), lower energy consumption (ambient temperature operations) and environment friendliness (no use of toxic chemicals). In spite of that the industrial applications of enzymes are limited primarily due to the structural sensitivity of the free enzymes and challenges in downstream processing. We aim to engineer enzyme immobilized membrane reactors for efficient bioprocessing. One approach is to develop phospholipid bilayer functionalized, enzyme immobilized biomimetic membrane with improved functionality of the enzymes. We further aim to extend this study with enzyme cascades for value-added, bio-based chemicals formation.
• Membrane based bioseparations: Traditional membrane based bioseparations suffer from poor productivity and fouling. We aim to develop functionalized membrane based advanced bioseparations with superior performance. Membranes will be functionalized with polyelectrolytes/polymers/nanomaterials using different fucntionalization chemistries and will be utilized for various applications, such as separation of virus particles, isolation of milk components and purification of proteins.

2.
Biofuels and biobased
chemicals formation

• Improving the efficiency of bioethanol formation: Dilute acid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass produces inhibitors, such as HMF and furfural, which are detrimental to the downstream enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation to produce bioethanol. We have isolated and identified a bacterium that is capable of efficient removal of these inhibitors. The bacterium survives with only HMF and/or furfural as the sole carbon sources. Besides, it selectively consumes the inhibitors over the sugars. We aim to  deliver a bioprocess for efficient removal of the inhibitors and enhanced production of bioethanol. We also propose to study the degradation pathway of the inhibitors by the bacterium and plan to explore the opportunities of converting the inhibitors to valuable chemicals.
• Biological production of valuable organic acids: Organic acids, such as 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3HP) and succinic acid, are listed among the 12 most important value-added platform chemicals from renewable resources by the U.S. D.O.E. We plan to investigate biological production of these organic acids using renewable resources, such as crude glycerol. We also propose to develop an integrated separative bioreactor for simultaneous production and isolation of these bio-based chemicals using both suspended and immobilized microorganisms.

Teaching Interests:

1. Courses offered

(a) Core courses:
(i) Chemical
Reaction Engineering, (ii) Heat Transfer Operations, (iii) Mass Transfer and
Separations, and (iv) Process Calculations

(b) Elective Courses:
(i) Bioseparation Engineering, and (ii) Bioreactor
Design and Analysis

2. Proposed Elective Courses

(i) Membrane Technologies for Energy, Environment and
Bioengineering, and (ii) Introduction to Mathematical Modeling for Bioengineers