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Fed-batch and perfusion bioreactors are commonly used in biopharmaceutical production. This study applies mathematical models to investigate the influence of substrate concentration in the media added (Sm), operating substrate concentration in the bioreactor (S), and bioreaction time on the performance of both bioreactors. The performance parameters are titer, productivity, product yield, wasted substrate, and mean product residence time. The difference between the substrate concentration in the media and the operating substrate concentration has a major impact on performance parameters. For a fixed S, operating at higher values of Sm is more beneficial to both fed-batch and perfusion performance. Higher productivities are obtained in perfusion, and mean product residence times are shorter. Furthermore, perfusion can obtain titers comparable to fed-batch when operated at similar substrate concentrations. All this suggests that perfusion is more advantageous. It is advantageous to operate the bioreactors over a longer bioreaction time. However, for fed-batch bioreactors, there exists an optimal time after which there is a major progressive reduction in productivity.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the engagement and response of students to the teaching of engineering ethics incorporating a macro ethical framework whereby sustainability is viewed as context to professional practice. This involves incorporating a broader conception of engineering than is typically applied in conventional teaching of engineering ethics.Design methodology approach - A real life wicked problem case study assignment was developed. Students' understanding and practical application of the concepts were considered. A survey was conducted to gauge students' appreciation of the professional importance and their enjoyment of the subject matter.Findings - It was found that students appreciate and enjoy a macro ethical sustainability informed approach, but find it more challenging to apply in practice.Practical implications - The paper demonstrates an approach to the teaching of engineering ethics using a practical example, which can help broaden engineers' self-perceived role towards one where sustainability is context. It also shows how students can find such an approach to teaching ethics to be both enjoyable and relevant.Social implications - Engineers educated to perceive the importance of engaging with macro ethical issues as part of professional practice will be significantly better placed to inform public and industry policy towards greater good and engage with other professional and expert groups.Originality value - In this paper, an approach to engineering ethics which diverges from the traditional is proposed. This can be of value to those involved in the teaching of engineering ethics, particularly those seeking to incorporate sustainability and other macro ethical issues.

Background Transition discourses are gaining prominence in efforts to imagine a future that adequately addresses the urgent need to establish low carbon and climate resilient pathways. Within these discourses the ‘public’ is seen as central to the creation and implementation of appropriate interventions. The role of public engagement in societal transformation while essential, is also complex and often poorly understood. The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding regarding public engagement and to address the often superficial and shallow policy discourse on this topic. Main text The paper offers a review of evolving literature to map emergent public engagement in processes of transition and change. We adopt a pragmatic approach towards literature retrieval and analysis which enables a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral review. We use a scoping review process and the three spheres of transformation framework (designated as the practical, political and personal spheres) to explore trends within this complex research field. The review draws from literature from the last two decades in the Irish context and looks at emergence and evolving spaces of public engagement within various systems of change including energy, food, coastal management and flood adaptation, among others. Conclusions The results highlight the siloed and fragmented way in which public engagement in transitions is carried and we propose a more cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary approach which depends on bringing into dialogue often contrasting theories and perspectives. The paper also illustrates some shifting engagement approaches. For instance, nexus articles between the practical and political spheres suggest deeper forms of public engagement beyond aggregated consumer behaviour to align technological delivery with institutional and societal contexts. While most articles in the practical sphere draw largely on techno-economic insights this influence and cross-disciplinarity is likely to draw in further innovations. Nexus articles between the political and personal sphere are also drawing on shifting ideas of public engagement and largely stress the need to disrupt reductive notions of engagement and agency within our institutions. Many of these articles call attention to problems with top-down public engagement structures and in various ways show how they often undermine and marginalise different groups.

Purpose - This paper aims to present key findings from an inquiry into engineering accreditation and curricula renewal. The research attempted to ascertain conceptions of requisite sustainability themes among engineering academics and professionals. The paper also reflects on the potential role of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) in embedding sustainability through their programme accreditation guidelines and wider implications in terms of rapid curricula renewal.Design methodology approach - This research comprised an International Engineering Academic Workshop held during the 2010 International Symposium on Engineering Education in Ireland, on \"accreditation and sustainable engineering\". This built on the findings of a literature review that was distributed prior to the workshop. Data collection included individual questionnaires administered during the workshop, and notes scribed by workshop participants.Findings - The literature review highlighted a wide range of perspectives across and within engineering disciplines, regarding what sustainability sustainable development (SD) themes should be incorporated into engineering curricula, and regarding language and terminology. This was also reflected in the workshop discussions. Notwithstanding this diversity, clusters of sustainability themes and priority considerations were distilled from the literature review and workshop. These related to resources, technology, values, ethics, inter- and intra-generational equity, transdisciplinarity, and systems and complex thinking. Themes related to environmental and economic knowledge and skills received less attention by workshop participants than represented in the literature.Originality value - This paper provides an appreciation of the diversity of opinion regarding priority sustainability themes for engineering curricula, among a group of self-selected engineering academics who have a common interest in education for SD. It also provides some insights and caveats on how these themes might be rapidly integrated into engineering curricula.

Background This paper focuses on discourses of transition in the electricity system in the Irish print media, with particular attention to both the framing and the scalar referents of the debate. We characterise some of the key contextual drivers for system transformation and suggest that too sharp a distinction between existing electricity infrastructure and systems of the future forecloses the possibility of social learning. Our central question research question is: What lessons can emergent techno-optimistic solutions to electricity system transitions learn from contemporary infrastructure controversies? Using a reconstruction based on print media coverage over a 12-month period in Ireland, we present three contrasting short stories to suggest that there are some commonalities that might provide cues and clues for promoting solutions for transitions to a low-carbon economy and society. Methods We divide our methods section into a discussion of theory and methods. In the theory part, we explore the literatures on sustainable electricity transitions, critical infrastructures and social acceptability of energy solutions. In the methods part, we begin from the assertion that storylines help constitute reality allowing constellations of actors to coalesce around certain narratives. We outline the methodological approach to the reconstruction of mediated narratives based on three short stories of electricity system transformations in Ireland. Results The three short stories recounted here, the future is smart; blurred lines; and policy versus place, show how narratives of economic recovery and economic growth risk occlude sustainable electricity system transition narratives, generating conflict rather than consensus on the decarbonisation of the Irish economy and society. Conclusions Although the public discourse on smart grid technologies is very much in its infancy in Ireland, its rhetorical framing is very similar to that in both the wind farm and infrastructure controversies. The lack of attention to issues of scale, ownership, rhetorical framing and the perceived distribution and fairness of costs and benefits in these controversies could become equally problematic in the roll of smart grid strategies. Smarter green transitions in regions and cities do not depend on technological innovation alone but require social and institutional innovation to ensure constructive public engagement in sustainable electricity system transitions.

The present review discusses the attributes of granola breakfast cereal produced by wet granulation. Granola is an aggregated baked food product often eaten as a breakfast cereal containing natural ingredients such as oats, nuts and honey. Wet granulation is a unit operation where fine primary particulate materials (powders, grains etc.) agglomerate in the presence of a liquid binder to produce larger granules. High-shear granulation and fluidised bed granulation are the most common mode of wet granulation. Granulation prevents the segregation of co-agglomerated components, resulting in an improvement in content uniformity. In addition, the compression and dissolution characteristics, product attractiveness of the product are improved. The granulation process and operation conditions are discussed in detail and a case study employing granola production is presented.

This article analyses the approaches of academics seeking to engage with private, public and community-based stakeholders through transdisciplinary research about pressing sustainability challenges and, in particular, climate change; it outlines aspects of the institutional factors which influence transdisciplinary research. A qualitative approach was employed in conducting 10 semi-structured interviews to analyse the challenges and motivations of academic researchers when working with a range of other stakeholders through transdisciplinary practice. Two key contributions are made through this work. First, this article adds to the existing literature on motivations and challenges for undertaking research with private, public and community stakeholders in a cross-disciplinary manner. Second, the current institutional circumstances influencing such research practices are outlined, alongside potential ways forward. The research presented here has been undertaken in light of the experiences of the two lead co-authors as early career researchers coming from the disciplines of sociology and energy engineering, engaging in transdisciplinary research within a local community context in relation to a regional energy transition project.

This paper by an international team around MaREI – the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) national Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation – builds on two previous papers.1 The underlying model of the “deep institutional innovation” (DIIS) – team posits that societal transformations occur at specific moments in history. It is the premise of the three papers that we are now at such a historical tipping point. Climate change, environmental degradation and a biodiversity crisis, marked increases in inequality, economic crises, the rise of populism, rising geo-political tensions, the effects of increased globalisation, and ongoing religious and ethnic conflicts provide clear evidence that current social institutions are not optimal, either for human flourishing or for addressing global challenges. Meta-institutions around economics, culture, religion, education, politics (to name just a few) need to be fundamentally re-imagined. The coronavirus pandemic has brought this dangerous reality into even starker relief, as it highlights the interconnectedness and the sheer fragility of our globalised socio-economic-environmental system. The authors draw on the models of Kellerman (2012) and Padilla et al. (2007). This triangular model of ‘leaders-followers-context’ emphasises the critical influence of societal and organisational context in affecting followers’ demands and expectations and in empowering particular types of leaders. They describe that underlying changes in the dynamics lead to tipping points that necessitate systemic change. At such historical moments – and facing our present societal “wicked problems”2 accelerates such a dynamic – the prevalence of particular sources of toxicity, if they are not constrained, can tip the balance of the transformation to outcomes that are severely detrimental to the public good.