Fermentation processes reactor types

The formation of hydrogen is accompanied with VFAs or solvent production during an anaerobic digestion process. Therefore, the distribution of VFA concentrations and their finctions is a usefiil indicator for monitoring hydrogen production. Fig. 3 shows the variations in alcohol and VFAs. Most of the VFAs were analyzed as acetate and butyrate, and most of the alcohols were analyzed as ethanol. The propionate concentration was below the analytical limit. It indicates that the anaerobic pathway in the reactor is not propionic-type fermentation but but5nrate-type fermentation. Clostridium butyricum is considered to be the dominant... 

Fig. 2 Reactor types used for fermentation processes (A) batch reactor, (B) continuous reactor or chemostat, and (C) fed-batch reactors with either a feed stream or a product withdrawal stream.

There are many articles and textbooks available for further information about fermentation processes and bioreactor engineering. " The technology continues to be an area of study to improve production of pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, antibodies, and food products. Choosing the correct cell type and reactor strategy is of utmost importance. This choice also effects the downstream processing or separation sequence used to purify the product thus, a systems approach to fermentation is extremely valuable. 

The operating conditions for solid-state fermentation for cellulase production are dependent on the strain to be used, the reactor type and the medium composition, but the basic operating procedure remains the same as shown in Fig. 2. The final product can be obtained as crude solid cellulase, liquid cellulase or powder cellulase according to the application. Figure 3 shows a process flowsheet for cellulase production [25]. In the process, wheat bran is used as substrate. Seeds are prepared in a stirred-tank fermentor and then sprayed into the medium by a spray distributor. The fermentation is performed in a shallow-tray fermentor. The temperature and humidity in the fermentor are automatically regulated. After fermentation, cellulase is recovered by water extraction and purified by salt precipitation and ion exchange. The final product is concentrat-... 

In upflow bubble operation the consumption of the gas phase by reaction must also be considered in the model if the reactor operates under lower pressure (<20 bar) and if the reactor length is of technical dimensions (L>2 m) additionally gas phase dispersion (radial and axial) may have an influence on conversion [65]. As this reactor type is also used in waste water treatment as well as in fermentation processes, the possible non-Newtonian behavior of the liquid phase as well as the coalescence behavior of the system must be taken into account. Finally, it should be remembered that - comparable to fluidized bed reactors - results from laboratory reactors with small column diameter and/or particle sizes smaller than 0.2 cm usually cannot be regarded as representative for technical upflow units, because capillary force as well as lare scale circulation in the liquid phase may be significantly different. 

It has been shown that various small scale models consisting of idealized reactor types can be used to simulate large scale fermentation processes, with respect to dissolved oxygen inhomogeneities. The reaction kinetic expressions, material balances on substrates, and products have to be formulated and solved in the context of the combined model network. The choice of the model configuration depends on (1) the system that has to be simulated, (2) knowledge of the hydrodynamics of the system, and (3) the equipment available and financial resources. 

A bioreactor is a vessel in which biochemical transformation of reactants occurs by the action of biological agents such as organisms or in vitro cellular components such as enzymes. This type of reactor is widely used in food and fermentation industries, in waste treatment, and in many biomedical facilities. There are two broad categories of bioreactors fermentation and enzyme (cell-free) reactors. Depending on the process requirements (aerobic, anaerobic, solid state, immobilized), numerous subdivisions of this classification are possible (Moo-Young, 1986). 

Typically, the SSF process is carried out in a CSTR reactor in batch mode. Under these reaction conditions, the fermentation product, ethanol, exerts its effect not only on microbes but also on saccharification. To overcome this problem, and to improve the efficiency of ethanol production from cellulose, the continuous removal of end-product during ethanol production would have advantages. With this type of process application, the SSF process can be operated in a fed-batch mode. Fed-batch operation is similar to continuous operation except the fermentation broth is retained in the fermentor at all times whereas the solid substrate is continuously fed into the fermentor [73]. Another method is to continuously remove ethanol during the SSF process (see Sect. 2.1.3). 

Chapter 3 is devoted to the topic of pervaporation membrane reactors. These are unique systems in that they use a liquid feed and a vacuum on the permeate side they also mostly utilize polymeric membranes. Chapter 4 presents a survey of membrane bioreactor processes these couple a biological reactor with a membrane process. Reactions studied in such systems include the broad class of fermentation-type or enzymatic processes, widely used in the biotechnology industry for the production of amino acids, antibiotics, and other fine chemicals. Similar membrane bioreactor systems are also fin-... 

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