Biochemical Engineer
A Definition

Edward T. Woodruff has experience as a Biochemical Engineer.  This webpage sheet is information and designed for your interest and edification.  To learn more about our contributions and performance results, please see Home and Accomplishments.

At Grace Research Edward T. Woodruff was appointed to head up the bound enzyme task force.  Our job was to develop technology to make bound enzyme medical diagnostic tubing.  We also contributed to the amino acid parental nutritional therapy blending and packaging program.  This involved producing pyrogen free products. 

After this in the 1980's The W. R. Grace Research Division was interested in biochemical technology to make products like aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine.  We studied the aspartic acid chemistry in bound whole cell enzyme packed columns.  The l-phenylalanine technology was developed for a fermentation process.  These projects brought us into the world of the Biochemical Engineer.

A biochemical engineer applies (chemical) engineering disciplines to living systems. While humans might thought to be covered via the biochemical engineer phrase, as used here the filed of interest for the biochemical engineer is meant to cover other than humans.

The biochemical engineer applies the disciplines of reaction kinetics, heat and mass transfer, and fluid flow to the field covered by the biochemical engineer. This means that the chemical engineer has a definite role to play as a biochemical engineer as the disciplines listed here for biochemical engineer come from the chemical engineering arena. There is an additional aspect here, however. The biochemical engineer covers the ground where living systems are involved. The biochemical engineer goes beyond the scope of the “normal” chemical engineer in that clean in place systems, sterilization, and inert gas stainless steel welding are involved.

The biochemical engineer is involved in the fields of fermentation as well as packed columns using whole cells or bound enzymes to achieve the reaction of interest. At W. R. Grace Research the biochemical engineer encompassed utilized packed columns to make aspartic acid. l-phenylalanine was produced via a fermentation process.  Industrially the biochemical engineer uses fermentation to make penicillin, citric acid and ethyl alcohol for example. Perhaps ethyl alcohol fermentation done by the biochemical engineer is the one of most recent interest. Here the biochemical engineer makes an important oxygenated additive to gasoline to facilitate clean air requirements in those states that need oxygenates.

See also Biochemical Engineering and Biochemical Process Design. 

See also Accomplishments.