Benedikt Scholz (D3), Assistant Professor Yusuke Hayashi, Project Researcher Mohamed Rami Gaddem, Professor Hirokazu Sugiyama received Technical Achievement Award of SIS

On 15th September 2023, Benedikt Scholz (D3), Assistant Professor Yusuke Hayashi, Project Researcher Mohamed Rami Gaddem, Professor Hirokazu Sugiyama, Department of Chemical System Engineering, received Technical Achievement Award of the Division of Sysrems, Information, and Simulation Technologies (SIS) at The Society of Chemical engineers.

Assistant Professor Hayashi participated in the photo shoot from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
He is staying at KTH since September for UTokyo Global Activity Support Program for Young Researchers.

Technical Achievement Award of the Division of Sysrems, Information, and Simulation Technologies (SIS) at The Society of Chemical engineers

This award is given to a presentation that has made a significant contribution to the development of science, technology, and industry, and that is worthy of commendation among general presentations on outstanding industrial applications of science and technology at sessions related to the SIS Division.

About awarded research

Title: CFD-based modeling of a continuous forced convection-based freezer unit for human induced pluripotent stem cells considering supercooling

In the production of human induced pluripotent (hiPS) cells, transportation and storage involving cell freezing are the core of the supply chain, but hiPS cells are vulnerable to damage due to dehydration and ice crystal formation in during the freezing process, which means that a precise process design is needed. Previous studies have been conducted to investigate the cooling rate through experiments and simulations. However, the freezing process is still performed using batch operation, which means it is difficult to handle mass production. In this work, we first developed a concept of continuous freezing processes using multiple forced convection freezers, and estimated the temperature distribution in the freezer using computational fluid dynamics simulation. Then, we calculated the cell survival rate after thawing using our survival rate model, and evaluated multiple operating conditions. The results of this research are expected to contribute to the realization of large-scale freezing of hiPS cells.

Your impression & future plan

It is our pleasure to receive this award. We deeply appreciate the collaborators and the members of Sugiyama-Badr laboratory. We will continue to work on the topic for extending the research and implementing the outcome in the real world.