Chemical Engineering: Ingenuity at the Interface between Science and Society

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Chemical Engineering Ingenuity at the Interface
between Science and Society

• Don MacElroy
• B.E., Ph.D.

I do not object to people looking at their
watches when I am speaking. But I strongly object
when they start shaking them to make certain they
are still going Lord Birkett (1960)
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Overview

• Chemical Engineering at UCD
• New Challenges, New Frontiers

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• General definition Chemical engineering
  involves the design and enabling of processes for
  the transformation from one form to another or
  the recovery (separation and purification) of
  materials (chemicals, biochemicals).

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Chemical Engineering at UCD
Structure and Staffing

• Post-war Drive to establish Chemical Engineering
  in Ireland prior to 1952 UCD offered a Diploma
  in Chemical Technology within Chemistry.
• Early 1952 Concept discussed between Faculties
  of Science and Engineering and Architecture
  Establish in Chemistry or Engineering?

• Established in Engineering 1952 Supervised by
  then Dean M.A.Hogan.

Staff John ODonnell (Lecturer in
Mech/Elec) Jim Walsh (Lecturer in
Mech/Elec) Bill Riley (Lecturer in
Industrial Chemistry) Frank Dreschler
(Lecturer in Mech/Elec) George McMahon
(Assistant Lecturer)
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Chemical Engineering at UCD
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Chemical Engineering at UCD
1959 1963 1966/67 1971 1980
J.ODonnell J.Walsh B.Riley P.OFlynn J.ODonnell J.Walsh B.Riley P.OFlynn J.Kelly J.ODonnell J.Walsh P.OFlynn J.Kelly J.Byrne(66) D.Carroll(67) J.ODonnell J.Walsh P.OFlynn J.Kelly D.Carroll J.Byrne N.Murphy J.ODonnell J.Walsh P.OFlynn J.Kelly D.Carroll J.Byrne N.Murphy F.MacLoughlin D.Malone
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• John Kelly
• Appointed as Dean of Engineering and Architecture
  1979
• Appointed as Registrar 1984

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• John ODonnell retires, 1988.

• Jim Walsh appointed Head of Department.

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Chemical Engineering at UCD

• 1989 Move from Merrion Street to Belfield

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Chemical Engineering at UCD
1991 1992/93
J.Walsh P.OFlynn J.Kelly D.Carroll J.Byrne N.Murphy F.MacLoughlin D.Malone D. MacElroy G.Hamer P.OFlynn J.Kelly D.Carroll J.Byrne N.Murphy F.MacLoughlin D.Malone D. MacElroy J.Walsh retires J.Kelly (half-time (1993))
Geoffrey Hamer appointed to the Chair and Head of
Department in 1992
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Chemical Engineering at UCD
1995-2000 2000-2004
G.Hamer D.Carroll J.Byrne N.Murphy F.MacLoughlin D.Malone D. MacElroy B.Glennon (1995) P.Kieran (1999) J.Kelly (2000) P.OFlynn (2000) F.MacLoughlin D.Malone D. MacElroy B.Glennon P.Kieran E. Casey (2002) D. Mooney (2003) S.McDonnell (2004) G.Hamer (2001) J. Byrne (2002) N. Murphy(2002) D.Carroll(2003).
Dan Carroll appointed Head of Department (2001)
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Paddy OFlynn, still in harness
Noel Murphy, business as usual
John Byrne, seeing new horizons
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Chemical Engineering at UCD
2000-2004 2005
F.MacLoughlin D.Malone B.Glennon P.Kieran E. Casey (2002) D. Mooney (2003) S.McDonnell (2004) G.Hamer (2001) J. Byrne (2002) N. Murphy(2002) D.Carroll(2003). D. MacElroy appointed Chair (2003) D. MacElroy F.MacLoughlin D.Malone B.Glennon P.Kieran E. Casey D. Mooney S.McDonnell M.Al-Rubeai C.Stubenrauch
Professor Mohammed Al-Rubeai appointed to the
Chair of Biochemical Engineering (2005)
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Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Technical and administrative staff
• Dan Cash Sheila Carroll
• Liam Morris Aoife Carney
• Jim Nolan
• Oliver Canniffe
• Tom Burke
• Noel Brady
• Patricia Connolly
• Sinead Kerins
• Pat OHalloran
• Brid Casey
• Frank Dillon
• Gerry Hayden

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Tom Burke M.B.E.
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Chemical Engineering Education at UCD
Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Granada Keynote Lecture (2003) (Dr.-Ing
  Martin Molzahn EFCE Working Party on Education)
• The education of chemical engineers in
  Europe is influenced by at least three major
  issues
• A lack of students entering Chemical Engineering
  programmes in several European countries
• The process towards a harmonized higher education
  area in Europe (Bologna Process)
• A distinct uncertainty as to what Chemical
  Engineering as well as education in Chemical
  Engineering should be in the future.
• Under development.

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Chemical Engineering at UCD
1. Undergraduate Enrolment
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Timothy McCarthy Peter OCallaghan Michael
OKeefe
Class of 1956
Class of 2003
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Commitment to Recruitment
Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Departmental Activities
• Chemical Engineering Open Days
• Chemical Engineering Video
• In conjunction with the Engineering School
• Schools Visits
• Engineering Information Events
• Future Plans
• Seminar/Event for Chemistry Teachers Afternoon
  event to engage Chemistry Teachers with Chemical
  Engineering.
• Chemical Engineering Open Days Opening these
  events to a wider geographically area (national)
• Mail-drop to all chemistry teachers
• Improve links with overseas Schools and
  Universities.

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Leaving Certificate (HL) Mathematics and Applied
Mathematics (1999-2003)
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3. Chemical Engineering Education at UCD
Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Current Strengths
• Exposure to processes from molecular to
  macroscale providing a breadth of skills which
  permits the pursuit of a wide range of
  professional activities (outcome IChemE MEng
  level accreditation 2004-2009).
• Weaknesses
• While a number of new topics have been
  introduced in recent years, a significant portion
  of the curriculum has not changed substantially
  in the last four decades.
• Modularisation and the establishment of
  interdisciplinary programmes will provide the
  impetus for further revitalisation of the
  curriculum.

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Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Ongoing developments and targets
• Broaden Chemical/Biochemical course content with
  an emphasis on batch processing and scale-up
• Integrate quantitative molecular design and
  nano/biotechnology at levels suitable for
  engineering resolution of present and future
  healthcare, materials, energy and environmental
  issues.
• Draw on examples from industrial practice (for
  example Process and Analytical Technology (PAT))
• Expand on current topics in modelling and
  computation to include the principles of
  simulation at all length and time scales.
• ? These are in line with the US initiative New
  Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Education

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Professional Commitment
Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Accreditation (IEI and IChemE (MEng level
  2004-2009))1
• Improving links with industry (3rd Year summer
  placements, Final Year Research Project scheme,
  and postgraduate research projects)
• Taught course(s) in MEngSc (Biopharmaceutical
  Engineering2 and (projected) contribution to
  programmes in Advanced Materials3)
• Short courses.
• 1Quality assurance (IChemE high-level
  learning outcome in Core Chemical Engineering)
  (Graduates) must be able to handle advanced
  problems in fluids and solids formation and
  processing. They must be able to apply chemical
  engineering methods to the analysis of complex
  systems within a structured approach to Safety,
  Health and Sustainability.
• 2National Institute for Bioprocessing
  Research and Training (NIBRT).
• 3The Institute for Science and Engineering
  of Advanced Materials (SEAM)

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Graduate employment
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Remaining Question What will Chemical
Engineering be in the future?
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New Challenges, New Frontiers
From an Industrial Perspective
The major challenge is to create a predictive
approach to the manufacturing process and to
quality assurance (and) to look to science and
engineering rather than compliance as the culture
to drive (industrial) performance (Dr
Paddy Caffrey, IEI Presidential Address, February
16th, 2005) Practical experience (Chemical
Engineering) uncombined with scientific
knowledge, is a poor staff to rest upon, and is
very soon played out. (George E. Davis
(1850-1907), 1901)
From a Philosophical Perspective The future
aint what it used to be (Yogi Berra,
American baseball player)
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New Challenges, New Frontiers
From an Industrial Perspective
The major challenge is to create a predictive
approach to the manufacturing process and to
quality assurance (and) to look to science and
engineering rather than compliance as the culture
to drive (industrial) performance (Dr
Paddy Caffrey, IEI Presidential Address, February
16th, 2005) Practical experience (Chemical
Engineering) uncombined with scientific
knowledge, is a poor staff to rest upon, and is
very soon played out. (George E. Davis
(1850-1907), 1901)
From a Philosophical Perspective The future
aint what it used to be (Yogi Berra,
American baseball player)
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New Challenges, New Frontiers
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New Challenges, New Frontiers
Current Research in Chemical Engineering at UCD

• Departmental Research Strengths
• Dynamic group of (comparatively) young staff
  with qualifications and capabilities in many of
  the strategic areas listed in the U.S. National
  Research Council Report (2003) as well as reports
  from Forfás, the EPSRC and Engineering
  Institutions.
• Substantial recent funding (3.5M) provides the
  stimulus for growth.
• Gaps
• In Process Design, downstream processing,
  advanced materials and protein chemistry.

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New Challenges, New Frontiers
Beyond the Molecular Frontier (U.S. National
Research Council Report on Challenges for
Chemical Engineering and Chemistry (2003)) Nine
strategic areas

• Synthesis and Manufacturing
• Chemical and Physical Transformations of Matter
• 3. Isolating, Identifying, Imaging and Measuring
  Substances and Structures
• Chemical Theory and Computer Modelling From
  Computational Chemistry to Process Systems
  Engineering
• 5. The interface with Biology and Medicine
• Materials by Design
• Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry
• Energy Providing for the Future
• 9. National and Personal Security

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Multiphase Systems (Frank MacLoughlin and Dermot
M. Malone)

• Transport Processes in Airlift Reactors
• Mixing, turbulence and mass transfer
• Shear Effects on Plant Cell Suspensions
• Capillary and turbulent jet flows
• Scale-up of Liquid-Liquid Reactors
• Evolution of transient size distributions,
  similarity transforms
• Biochemical Engineering Processes
• Microfiltration, immobilised whole-cells

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Stimuloresponsive Hydrogel Drug Delivery
Systems (Damian Mooney, Eoin Casey and Don
MacElroy)
RDF of O-O on hydrogel backbone monomer of PNiPAM
for 24 Å simulation cell, solvated in liquid
water.
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Engineering Characterisation and Optimisation of
Bioprocess Systems Hydrodynamic Shear Sensitivity
of Biocatalysts (Patricia Kieran, Dermot Malone,
Frank MacLoughlin)
scale-up
increased RNA
shear exposure
apoptosis
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Process Scale-up (Brian Glennon) ? how to
reliably and predictably transfer lab-scale
systems to large-scale production ? challenges
need to be able to model, monitor and manipulate
processes