Bio-inspired chemical engineering (BioChE) may be recognized as a significant branch of chemical engineering.It may consist of, but not limited to, the following three aspects: 1)Chemical engineering principles and unit operations in biological systems;2) Process engineering principles for producing existing or developing new chemical products through living devices;3)Chemical engineering processes and equipment that are designed and constructed through mimicking (does not have to reproduce one hundred percent) the biological systems including their physical-chemical and mechanical structures to deliver uniquely beneficial performances.This may also include the bio-inspired sensors for process monitoring.In this talk, as an important application of BioChE, the near-realin-vitro digestion models are discussed which refer to the systems that not only try resemble chemical changes but also physically mimic the physical movements and geometrical details of the real GI systems.Both Rat and Human Near Real models have been designed and constructed, and tested in our group over the past 10 years.The models may be used for functional food and pharmaceutical product developments or even fundamental researches.The experiences gained so far and the future needs in this direction will be discussed.