Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Consider yourself as a consultant of XYZ firm. You have been assigned the task of choosing a product of your interest such as enzymes, metabolites (primary or secondary), recombinant product, etc. You are then asked to design a process for the chosen product, study the economics, study any alternatives. You will identify the metrics of the scale, identify unit operations, allocate resources, etc. and design a plant. In the due process you will be scaling up a process from lab to industrial scale. As a guideline, you will follow and address the following aspects:
1. Choose a product by conducting a Literature search
2. The literature should be such that the growth kinetics are known or established
3. You will decide the metrics of the scale that you will be designing
4. You will identify the isolation, preservation and strain development appropriate for your organism
5. Select raw materials, media, etc. and work any alternatives based on economics
6. Based on the scale you will work out the alternatives of batch, fed-batch, continuous, etc.
processes
8. Calculate the requirements of the raw materials, media, etc.
9. Develop inoculums from lab to pilot scale to industrial scale
9. Design the unit operations for upstream (operations according to scale
10. Design recovery and purification i.e., downstream unit operations according to scale
11. Draw a process flow diagram
12. Draw a process and instrumentation diagram
13. Allocate resources such as personnel for the process 14. Work out the economics of the process

Finally, you will submit a neatly typed report. The report must contain a summary of the problem statement, product and microorganism chosen, metrics of the scale, process flow diagram, process and instrumentation diagram, methodology used, economics and design alternatives, summary and conclusion, and an appendix of all the necessary calculations required in terms of scaling the process from lab to industrial scale. You will also submit a soft copy of all the calculations and report.