YOU WOULDN’T BE ALIVE NOW IF THIS UNIT OPERATION FAILS?
If you’re reading this, then I am pretty sure you're breathing well indicating you are still alive which is the ultimate result of the successful functioning of the unit operation within your body.
what is the unit operation?
In chemical engineering and related fields, a unit operation is a basic step in a process. Unit operations involve a physical change or chemical transformation
I guess you’re here to know about the answer right. here it is Respiration is the unit operation if fails then you will be dead.
Many of them know respiration as a simple process of gas exchange between air and blood in the human body. but only a few are eager to find out how why and where the gas exchange is happening.
As a chemical engineer, I was curious to know about the respiration process in detail surprisingly during my research I got many insights which are the aspects of chemical engineering
Basing on that I considered respiration as a unit operation.
Why respiration is a unit operation?
In the respiration process, where the lung gases exchanged between the blood and air.
Air is a mixture of O2, N2, CO2, and many other gases. this air when inhaled enters into the lungs through the nose.
In the lungs, at alveoli (the part of the lung where gas exchange takes place)only oxygen from the mixture of air has to be diffuse into the blood simultaneously co2 has to diffuse into the mixture of air.
This process looks similar to the separation of a component from fluid in chemical engineering.
Unit operations such as absorption, adsorption, extraction, and filtration are used to separate the desired component from fluid in the chemical industry
So my question is which chemical unit operation suits the gas exchange between blood and air?
After a few moments of my searching, I concluded that the diffusion of O2 into the blood could be either absorption or adsorption.
Diffusion of O2 into the blood is absorption or adsorption?
I think this question is still a debatable one
You might say absorption as I also thought the same at first.
I think Diffusion of O2 into the blood is by adsorption.
How it is adsorption?
The diffused oxygen molecule will get attached to the hemoglobin molecule (solid surface )present in the Red blood cells of the blood. this looks similar to the adsorption process where one the component of fluid adsorbs onto the solid surface.
When the oxygen molecule gets attached to hemoglobin molecule it is been called oxyhemoglobin. this oxyhemoglobin is been carried by the red blood cells (RBC) to all parts of the body. later the oxygen molecules detach from the hemoglobin through the desorption process.
*One Red blood cell(RBC’S) contains only one hemoglobin molecule.
*On average, there would be 4–5lakh RBC’S per each mm³ of blood in human beings this may vary between males and females.
*There are about 480million alveoli (the place where the adsorption of O2 & desorption of CO2 takes place )present in the lungs.
Just imagine if one alveoli can be considered as an adsorption column for the adsorption of the o2 process. then there could be 480million adsorption columns functioning simultaneously in the lungs.
As a whole, we can consider human lungs as the biggest adsorption chamber ever operated containing 480million small adsorption columns functioning simultaneously.
This entire adsorption of O2 and desorption of CO2 and vice-versa unit operations in the lungs during the respiration process.
Puts a bit of work on our brains which can be the challenges for all biochemical and chemical engineers by creating various questions such as
What could be the adsorption or desorption rate of each molecule?
What could be the mass transfer rate of the O2 molecules and CO2?
What would be the solubility of O2 in blood?
and many more questions that are challenging to the biochemical and chemical engineers.
Not only the respiration process whole human metabolism activities are the aspects of chemical or biochemical engineering.
So from now if anyone would have asked me about where we can observe the chemical engineering aspects? I can definitely able to answer them by showing a real example which is the human body.
