UIUC Agricultural and Biological Engineering | Research Groups

Food and Bioprocess Engineering Group

Careers in FBE

Food and bioprocess engineering applies fundamental principles to complex materials in order to make useful products for food and industrial uses. Chemical, pharmaceutical and food companies need engineers that understand heat, mass and momentum transfer as well as biological materials produced by agriculture. Food and bioprocess engineers are working to answer tough questions such as:

How do you design a process that can recover naturally healthy compounds from something as boring as a corn kernel?

Do you know the challenges associated with making cancer fighting ketchup?

Have you ever wondered how they can make milk with less lactose?

Can you imagine CD players, old credit cards and auto parts that don't fill up landfills?

How do you convert all raw material used in a bioprocess into valuable products needed by our society?

A biological "revolution" is following mechanical and chemical revolutions that have shaped our society in previous decades. Our society is requiring more products that can be derived from biological, renewable resources. Our society also needs processes that have a reduced burden on the environment to make products that we need. This means that industry will need engineers that can use physical, chemical and biological sciences and apply them to the problem at hand.

Applying engineering principles to biological materials is a challenge. Materials such as fruits, grains and vegetables are often hard to characterize because they have a high variability compared to classical engineering materials like concrete, hydrocarbons and steel.

At the Food and Bioprocess Engineering research program at the University of Illinois,

We've developed a bioprocess that recovers a nutraceutical from corn that naturally lowers blood cholesterol

We're investigating processes that result in better food ingredients for animals while more efficiently producing fuel ethanol for motor vehicles

We're working on ways to improve the efficiency of evaporation and fermentation processes

We're developing ways to make nutritional products for animals that will have lower environmental impact

For more information, or to arrange a personal tour, contact Kent Rausch.