Biochemical reactors Biomass

The performance of a biochemical reactor is designed and evaluated based the reaction rate equation. The rate of biomass generation is based on the Monod rate model ... 

One of the most important processes in the production of biochemicals is the 40,000 tons/yr lactic acid production involving the Lactobacillus oxidation of lactose. The MBR productivity increased eightfold compared to a conventional batch reactor with a 19-fold increased biomass concentration. Even a 30-fold increased production of ethanol was found upon coupling the Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation to a membrane separation. Other successful industrial applications involve the pathogen-free production of growth hormones, the synthesis of homochiral cyanohydrins, the production of 1-aspartic acid, phenyl-acetylcarbinol, vitamin B12, and the bio transformation of acrylonitrile to acrylamide. 

An informative example of the general patterns of behavior of the chemostat upon variation of D has been given by Bailey and Ollis [J.E. Bailey and D.F. Ollis, Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals, McGraw-FIill Book Co., New York, NY, (1977)] and is shown in Figure 4.11 for a typical set of parameters. Note that the reactor is very sensitive to changes in D when operation is at conditions near washout. This sensitivity becomes particularly important if one wishes to maximize the amount of biomass effluent from the reactor, CD. Flere of course the requirement is... 

In developing the solution to Illustration 13.1, we utilized a variation of the traditional material balance on a batch reactor that is often useful in the analysis of biochemical transformations carried out in batch and semibatch modes of operation. In particular, we took into account variations in the volume of the broth in the bioreactor by first converting concentrations of biomass and substrate into the total quantities of these materials present in the bioreactor. In so doing we were implicitly recognizing that the proper form of a material balance on species i for variable-volume situations is... 

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