Bioreactor aeration

Tacke, D, Pinnekamp, J, Prieske, H and Kraume, M (2008), Membrane bioreactor aeration investigation of the velocity flow pattern . Water Science and Technology, 57(4) 559-565. 

Until recently most industrial scale, and even bench scale, bioreactors of this type were agitated by a set of Rushton turbines having about one-thind the diameter of the bioreactor (43) (Fig. 3). In this system, the air enters into the lower agitator and is dispersed from the back of the impeller blades by gas-fiUed or ventilated cavities (44). The presence of these cavities causes the power drawn by the agitator, ie, the power requited to drive it through the broth, to fall and this has important consequences for the performance of the bioreactor with respect to aeration (35). k a has been related to the power per unit volume, P/ U, in W/m and to the superficial air velocity, in m/s (20), where is the air flow rate per cross-sectional area of bioreactor. This relationship in water is... 

Bioprocess Control An industrial fermenter is a fairly sophisticated device with control of temperature, aeration rate, and perhaps pH, concentration of dissolved oxygen, or some nutrient concentration. There has been a strong trend to automated data collection and analysis. Analog control is stiU very common, but when a computer is available for on-line data collec tion, it makes sense to use it for control as well. More elaborate measurements are performed with research bioreactors, but each new electrode or assay adds more work, additional costs, and potential headaches. Most of the functional relationships in biotechnology are nonlinear, but this may not hinder control when bioprocess operate over a narrow range of conditions. Furthermore, process control is far advanced beyond the days when the main tools for designing control systems were intended for linear systems. 

The growth of cells on a large scale is called industrial fermentation. Industrial fermentation is normally performed in a bioreactor, which controls aeration, pH and temperature. Microorganisms utilise an organic source and produce primary metabolites such as ethanol,... 

Example 4 Oxygen Requirements for Activated Sludge in an Aerated Bioreactor... 

Non-stirred, non-aerated system about 70% of bioreactors are in this category. 

Stiired and aerated systems about 20% of the bioreactors in industrial operation. 

Non-stirred, aerated vessels are used in the process for traditional products such as wine, beer and cheese production. Most of the newly found bioprocesses require microbial growth in an aerated and agitated system. The percentage distribution of aerated and stirred vessels for bioreactor applications is shown in Table 6.1. The performances of various bioreactor systems are compared in Table 6.2. Since these processes are kinetically controlled, transport phenomena are of minor importance. 

TABLE 6.1. Percentage of distribution aerated and stirred vessel in bioreactor application... 

The inoculate was prepared in 250 ml flasks containing 100 ml of growth medium, which is inoculated with 10 ml of spore suspension. The mixture was shaken at 250 rpm and the temperature was controlled at 26 °C for 48 h. Then, 110 ml of resulting mycelia suspension is used to inoculate a 1000 ml broth in the airlift fermenter. The sterilised media are slowly pumped into the bioreactor at a flow rate of about lOOmlh-1 until 2 1 working volume is fully utilised. Aeration rates of 0.5, 1 and 2vvm (1,2 and 4 1 air/min) are used.6,7 Samples were taken at 24 hour intervals and evaluated for biomass, sugars and antibiotic concentrations. 

If you aerate a bioreactor, power consumption is much less than a non-aerated bioreactor. Oxygen transfer rate, OTR 6 X 10 3 kgm-3 Oxygen uptake rate, OUR 0.65 mmol 02 kg 1 cell Specific growth rate, umax 0.5 h 1... 

Hint if you aerate a bioreactor, die power consumption is less than a non-aerated bioreactor and the specific sugar consumption rate is 1 kg-kg 1 cell h-1. 

The typical bioreactor is a two-phase stirred tank. It is a three-phase stirred tank if the cells are counted as a separate phase, but they are usually lumped with the aqueous phase that contains the microbes, dissolved nutrients, and soluble products. The gas phase supplies oxygen and removes by-product CO2. The most common operating mode is batch with respect to biomass, batch or fed-batch with respect to nutrients, and fed-batch with respect to oxygen. Reactor aeration is discussed in Chapter 11. This present section concentrates on reaction models for the liquid phase. 

The power input in stirred tanks can be calculated using the equation P = Ne pnM if the Newton number Ne, which at present still has to be determined by empirical means, is known. For stirred vessels with full reinforcement (bafQes, coils, see e.g. [20]), the only bioreactors of interest, this is a constant in the turbulent flow range Re = nd /v> 5000-10000, and in the non-aerated condition depends only on geometry (see e.g. [20]). In the aerated condition the Newton number is also influenced by the Froude number Fr = n d/g and the gas throughput number Q = q/nd (see e.g. [21-23]). 

As is the case with pure bubble columns and gas-operated loop reactors, most bioreactors in technical use are aerated with oxygen or air. Reactors with pure surface aeration, such as roller bottles, shake flasks and small stirred reactors or special reactors with membrane aeration, are exceptions. The latter are used for the cultivation of cells and organisms which are particularly sensitive to shearing (see e. g. [28 - 29]). The influence of gas bubbles in increasing stress has been described in many publications (see e.g. [4, 27, 29, 30]). In principle it can be caused by the following processes ... 

Aimins, Henzler HJ (1993) Aeration in Cell Culture Bioreactors. In Rehm HJ, Reed G, PiihJer A StadJer P Biotechnology VCH 3 219... 

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