FERMENTER DESIGN
BATCH STIRRED FERMENTER FOR ETHANOL
PRODUCTION
A REPORT
Submitted in fulfillment of the
Requirements of BCT-304- BIOPROCESS EQUIPMENT
DESIGN for
Bachelor of Technology
In
Biochemical Engineering
BY
GARGI
02516100414
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University,Delhi
BIOREACTOR
Introduction
Properties, Applications and Microbial Production of Ethanol
Properties
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is a clear colorless liquid with a characteristic agreeable odor. In dilute
aqueous solution it has a somewhat sweet flavor but in more concentrated solutions it has a
burning taste. Ethanol, CH3CH2OH is an alcohol a group of chemical compounds whose
molecules contain a hydroxyl group – OH bonded to a carbon atom. Its low freezing point has
made it useful as the fluid in thermometers for temperatures below –40°C the freezing point of
mercury and for other low-temperature purposes such as for antifreeze in automobile
radiators. Ethanol is an alternative energy source. It is an alcohol made by fermenting corn or
other similar biomass material. There are three primary ways that ethanol can be used as a
transportation fuel.
Ethanol Production Process
There are two basic types of ethanol production plants already alluded to. One is the “wetmill”
and the other is the “dry mill”. The wet mill process will soak the grain (corn is the most
common so we will use it in our discussion here) until the corn is able to be broken down into
its components. At the present time, this product is commercially manufactured via large scale
aerobic fed-batch fermentation of selected strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Production of
ethanol from biomass requires even more extensive processing to release the polymeric sugars
in cellulose and hemicellulose that account for 23 % – 53 % and 20 % – 35 % of plant material,
respectively. Cellulose is a beta-linked glucose polymer, whereas hemicellulose is a highly
branched chain of xylose and arabinose that also contains glucose, mannose and galactose.
Hydrolysis of these carbohydrate polymers is usually accomplished by exposure to acid
(contributed either by the biomass or added externally) and by enzymes.
Bioreactor scale-up
The scale-up of a bioreactor (the step from small scale to a production scale) is a very difficult
task because many different aspects of engineering (physical and metabolic processes) and
economic considerations need to be taken into account and the final scale-up will necessarily
be a delicate compromise between inherently conflicting desirable characteristics. One might
regard scale-up as more an art than a science. Multiphase impeller stirred tank reactors
enhance mixing of reacting species used in a variety of chemical industries. These reactors have
been studied based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that can be used in the analysis,
design and scale up of these reactors. Production strains are normally first selected in the
laboratory, subsequently tested in a number of bioreactor of increasing scale, and the final
process verification is carried out in a pilot plant. Unfortunately it is physically impossible to
maintain the same process conditions for lab-scale, pilot-scale and industrial scale bioreactors.
The reason is that physical processes are directly and metabolic processes indirectly scale
dependent. Metabolic processes (microbial phenomena) are theoretically scale independent
but practically as a consequence of scale dependent transport phenomena the local
environment surrounding the cell will be different in a large scale than in a small scale typically
well stirred reactor and may cause metabolic changes. Physical processes (transport
phenomena) are scale dependent, they are changed with the reactor scale and described by
classical mechanical or chemical engineering. From it follows that likely no process parameter
value will be exactly the same in the different reactor scales. Even a completely different
reactor design may be preferable. Mathematical models of varying complexity are made up by
knowledge combination of metabolic and physical processes. Steps in scale-up are
schematically shown in Figure 2
+
The impeller diameter is usually around 1:3 of the reactor diameter for Rushton turbines. The round-
bottom facilitates cleaning, sterilization and avoids stagnant zones during operation. Typically there are
four equally spaced baffles, equipped near the inner vessel wall, used to break vortexes and so increase
the mixing efficiency. Sterile air (or possibly oxygen) for aerobic fermentation is introduced by means of
a bubble sparger located below the lowest of the impeller. Cooling (heating) can take place through the
reactor wall or by the use of internal coils. Optimal pH in the liquid reaction medium is typically kept by
adding acid or base from separate reservoirs and gaseous products such as carbon dioxide leave through
the headspace of the reactor as exhaust gas. The scheme of a batch stirred tank fermenter is depicted in
Figure 3.
Rheological Properties of Fermentation Broths
Rheological data have been reported for a range of fermentation fluids. This information has
been obtained using various viscometers and measurement techniques; however, operating
problems such as particle settling and broth centrifugation have been ignored in many cases.
The rheology of dilute broths and cultures of yeast and non-chain-forming bacteria is usually
Newtonian. Rheological properties of some microbial and plant-cell suspensions are listed in
Table 7.2. In most cases, the results are valid over only a limited range of shear conditions
which is largely dictated by the choice of viscometer. .
Mixing
Mixing is a physical operation which reduces non- uniformities in fluid by eliminating gradients
of concentration, temperature and other properties. Mixing is accomplished by interchanging
material between different locations to produce a mingling of components. If a system is
perfectly mixed, there is a random homogeneous distribution of system properties. Mixing
involves:
(i) blending soluble components of the medium such as sugars;
(ii) dispersing gases such as air through the liquid in the form of small bubbles;
(iii) maintaining suspension of solid particles such as cells;
(iv) where necessary, dispersing immiscible liquids to form an emulsion or suspension of
fine drops; and
(v) promoting heat transfer to or from the liquid.
Mixing is one of the most important operations in bioprocessing. To create the optimal
environment for fermentation, bioreactors must provide the cells access to all substrates,
including oxygen in aerobic culture. It is not enough to just fill the fermenter with nutrient-rich
medium; unless the culture is mixed, zones of nutrient depletion will develop as the cells
rapidly consume the materials they need. This problem is heightened if mixing does not
maintain a uniform suspension of biomass; substrate concentrations can quickly drop to zero in
areas where cells settle out of suspension. Another important function of mixing is heat
transfer. Bioreactors must be capable of transferring heat to or from the broth rapidly enough
so that the desired temperature is maintained. Cooling water is used to take up excess heat
from fermentations; the rate of heat transfer from the broth through the walls of the vessel to
the cooling water depends on mixing conditions in the vessel. The effectiveness of mixing
depends in turn on the rheological properties of the culture fluid.
Mixing Equipment
Stirred tanks are usually cylindrical in shape. If possible, the base of the tank is rounded at the
edges rather than angled; this eliminates sharp corners and pockets into which fluid currents
may not penetrate and discourages formation of stagnant regions. Mixing is achieved using an
impeller mounted in the tank; for use with Newtonian fluids, the ratio of tank diameter to
impeller diameter is normally about 3:1. The impeller is usually positioned overhead on a
centrally-located stirrer shaft. Sometimes, stirrer shafts are designed to enter at the bottom of
the vessel; the disadvantage of this arrangement is that leaks can develop if the seal between
the shaft and the tank floor is not perfect. The stirrer shaft is driven rapidly by the stirrer motor;
the effect of the rotating impeller is to pump the liquid and create a regular flow pattern. Liquid
is forced away from the impeller, circulates through the vessel, and periodically returns to the
impeller region. For efficient mixing with a single impeller, the depth of liquid in the tank should
be no more than 1.0-1.25 times the tank diameter.
Baffles, which are vertical strips of metal mounted against the wall of the tank, are installed to
reduce vortexing and swirling of the liquid. Baffles are attached to the tank by means of welded
brackets; four equally-spaced baffles are usually sufficient to prevent vortex formation. The
optimum baffle width depends on the impeller design and fluid viscosity but is of the order
1/10-1/12 the tank diameter.
Thermodynamics of cell cultivations
Cells use chemical energy from nutrients quite efficiently but, like any process, some of energy
in the substrates is released as heat. Cellular heat production is primary the result of
metabolism. Consequently is reasonable to expect an approximately proportional relationship
between heat generated and energy substrate utilized. The processed biomass extracted from
these species of microorganisms could be utilized as a source of potential protein either for
food supplement. Approximate heat balance related to the key substrate consumption is
expressed as follows:
Standard combustion heats can be found out either experimentally
Where Ci is the number of carbons in a compound and I is its degree of reduction.
Microbial kinetics
For successful describing of any fermentation process is necessary to know microbial kinetics
that expressed correlations between rates and reactant/product concentrations, temperature
and pH, r= f(c1,c…cn1,cn?,…,i1,ci1,ci?,…,T,pH). By its inserting in mass balances the substrate
conversions and the yield of individual products is possible to predict. This leads to simulations
that finally may result in optimal equipment design.
Unstructured model is assumed to describe the microbial kinetics of alcohol fermentation
yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae that provides a nice example of products inhibition with
specific-growth function of the type:
Where,max = maximum specific biomass growth rate
Ks= saturation constant of glucose
Cs= concentration of glucose
Cv = concentration of biomass
Kp = inhibition parameter
Values of kinetics parameters, max, Ks, Kp for the description of microbial kinetics and next
applied in mathematical modeling were evaluated on the basis of literature information:
max = 0.467 h-1
Ks= 2.0 Kg.m-3
Kp= 97.9Kg.m-3
Mixing and power consumption
The purpose of mixing is achieving concentration and temperature uniformity at each point of
the reaction volume as soon as possible. This assumption works reasonable well for small-scale
(1–2 l) intensely stirred reactors, with mixing times in the order of 1 s but in large scale systems
the time for achieving homogeneity can be in order of minutes. The mixing process requires
energy delivered to fermentation medium as the agitator power input transmitted to the fluid.
Therefore it is important to understand the interaction between the fluid motion, the agitator
speed, and the power input (consumption) and to know how a change of scale effects these
relationships. Formulae and correlations approach is used for describing the mixing behavior
and the mixing time, pumping capacity and circulation time are the most important quantitative
mixing characteristics. In real systems, the mixing device is an important component of the
reactor. Good mixing promotes the effective transfer of the substrates and heat to the
microorganisms.
The pumping capacity, VP, is that volume of liquid that gets expelled from the impeller per unit
time (m3/s) and is defined by
Where Nf is the flow number that depends on impeller type and on the medium viscosity (Nf =
0.72 for Rushton turbine and low viscosity medium), d s is the stirrer diameter and N is the
stirrer rate.
The circulation time, tc, is defined as
Where VL is the volume of the liquid phase.
The mixing time, tm, is the time needed to obtain a certain value of the degree of mixing
(homogeneity), m, made a pulse addition of a tracer.
Where, tc= circulation time
Mixing time for stirred tank fermenters above 60 m3 (the liquid working volume VL is in liters)
may be calculated from the empirical correlation
The dimensionless product N i t m is plotted as a function of the impeller Reynolds number Re i;
tm is the mixing time based on a 10% deviation from final conditions, and N i is rotational speed
of the stirrer. Ni tm represents the number of stirrer rotations required to homogenise the
liquid. At low Reynolds number, Nitm increases significantly with decreasing Rei. However, as
Reynolds number is increased above about 5 x 103, Nitm approaches a constant value which
persists at high Rei . For Rushton turbines, this constant value can be estimated using the
following relationship
where V is liquid volume and Di is impeller diameter. Thus, Ni tm at high Reynolds number
depends only on the size of the tank and stirrer. In some systems a slight increase in N i tm with
increasing Rei has been reported; however, in practice we can assume Ni tm reaches a constant
value. With Ni tm constant, mixing time reduces in direct proportion to increase in stirrer speed.
For rapid and effective mixing, t should be as small as possible. We can conclude that, in a tank
of fixed volume, mixing time is reduced if we use a large impeller and high stirring speed.
However, as the power requirements for mixing are also dependent on impeller diameter and
stirrer speed, it is not always possible to achieve small mixing times without consuming
enormous amounts of energy, especially in large vessels.
The power consumption, P, for unaerated conditions for multiple impellers put on the same
shaft is expressed through the following relation
where, nI = no of impeller
P= power input, J/s
Np = power No.(for Rushton turbine and turbulent flow)
r= density (kg.m3)
N= agitator speed,2.5 per sec
Ds=impeller diameter, 0.97m
The impeller tip speed, vt should be less than 7.62 m/s because cells can be mechanically damaged and
the ratio of power input and volume of liquid, P/V L, is recommended to be kept in large scale
fermenters, from the economical point of view, about 1-5kW/m 3.
Some impellers used in stirred tank bioreactor are shown in figure 4:
Heat transfer
Since biological reactions are very temperature sensitive a careful temperature control (keeping
temperature at the optimal value) is therefore absolutely essential. Heat is generated not only
by reaction heat, QR, which often accompanies reactions but by agitation of the medium (power
input), P=QR, as well. Removal of heat surplus is done by heat exchange from fermentation
medium (hot medium) to water (cool medium).
The heat transfer rate equation is written in the form:
Q= KAA(th – ts)
Where A is the heat surface area, th the temperature of the hot (fermentation) medium, tc
the average temperature of the ling medium and kA the overall heat transfer coefficient relate
to the heat surface area.
At industrial scale, heat transfer is often a problem as Q scales with volume of the reactor, that
is, for geometrically similar systems with dR3 while cooling surface area scales with dR2 . From it
follows that if for small-scale bioreactors (below a few m3) it is normally sufficient with wall
cooling, for large reactors either internal coil is necessary to install above a certain reactor size
or fermentation medium may be pumped out of the reactor and cooled in an external heat
exchanger. The presence of such internal piping clearly alters mixing pattern and fluid velocities
and therefore suitable criterion equation for calculation of the convection heat transfer
coefficient on side of fermentation medium should be used. The overall heat transfer
coefficient, kA , can be calculated from the relation as follows:
Where αh is the convection heat transfer coefficient on side of fermentation medium, dout is the
outer wall diameter, din is the inner wall diameter, λ is the conductive heat transfer coefficient
of the wall and αc is the convection heat transfer coefficient on side of cooling water.
The convection heat transfer coefficient depends on the flow hydrodynamics, physical
properties of liquid, the system geometry and is calculated from the following equation:
Where f is the fluid heat conductivity, l is the characteristic system dimension, Nu is the
Nusselt number which is calculated from empirical criterion equations which have for each
geometry specific form.
Correlations are normally based on dimensionless numbers, which give the Nusselt number,
Nu, as a function of the Reynolds number, Re, the Prandtl number,Pr,etc.
Criterion equation in the case of cooling water flowing inside the tube under turbulent
conditions is
Where Rec is the Reynolds number, Prc the Prandtl number for cool medium.
Criterion equation in the case that internal coil is added near the inner surface of a bioreactor can be
given as
Where Prh is the Reynolds number, Prh the Prandtl number for fermentation medium, d s the stirrer
diameter, dh= dout the outer diameter of the cooling tube, d R the inner bioreactor diameter.
Mass transfer
In bio reactions, the transport of nutrients to the cell surface and removal of metabolites from
the cell surface to the bulk of the fermentation are rate processes with times constants not
much smaller than those of the cellular reactions. Therefore, mass transfer must be included in
an analysis of bio reactions alongside the stoichiometry and cellular reactions.transport across
the plasma membrane of S. cerevisiae, is mediated by several specific plasma membrane
transport systems allowing the cell to switch between different, low affinity and high-affinity. A
simplified treatment of a flow field in which the overall mass transfer is divided into individual
different steps is normally used with good results. An overview of important mass transfer
steps in a fermentation process is depicted in Figure [5]. A sparingly soluble gas, usually oxygen,
must pass through a series of nine transport resistances from the gas bubble to the cell but in
our case only the first two resistances are relevant for the overall mass transfer rate. By
applying the two-film theory the following relation may be derived for the overall flux of the
considered component, Ji, from the gaseous to the liquid phase
Where ni is the mole flow rate of the component, Aif the interfacial area, KL the overall mass
transfer coefficient (reciprocal value of resistances in the gas and liquid phase), (c i*-ci) the
driving force expressed through a liquid phase, Ci the saturation concentration in the liquid
phase corresponding to the partial pressure Pi in the gas phase via Henry’s law (Pi=Hici), c,cj is
the true concentration in the bulk of a liquid phase.
However, the idea of expressing the mass transfer across surfaces by an overall mass transfer
coefficient multiplied by a concentration difference is clearly a simplification of a complicated
physical reality
The overall mass transfer coefficient, KL, is expressed the following well-known relationship
where resistances in the gas and liquid phases are included:
Where kL is the liquid-film side mass transfer coefficient, Hi the Henry’s constant for the given
compound and kg is the gas film side mass transfer coefficient.
OBJECTIVE:
BIOREACTOR DESIGN: MODIFIED STIRRED TANK BIOREACTOR
PRODUCT: ETHANOL
PROCESS: BATCH
CONDITION:ANAEROBIC
CELL SYSTEM: YEAST CELLS
TOTAL VOLUME (VR)= 70m3
WORKING VOLUME(VL)= 52.5m3
AGITATOR SPEED(N)= 2.5s-1
VESSEL WIDTH (dR)= 3.10 m
hR/dR=3
dS/dR=0.3
VESSEL TOTAL HEIGHT,hR = 9.29m
IMPELLER DIAMETER, dS= 0.97m
TYPE OF IMPELLER= RUSHTON TURBINE
NO. OF IMPELLER = 4
SHEAR RATE= 50 s-1
VISCOMETER= ROTATING SPINDLE
Stoichiometry of cell cultivations
Ethanol production with cells Saccharomyces cerevisiae under anaerobic conditions is a typical
example of cell cultivation with a primary metabolic product generation directly connected with
the biomass growth. From this follows that only one overall equation is necessary for a
description of the cell stoichiometry. The key (limiting) substrate is glucose.
The basis for calculation of stoichiometric coefficients, s, b, x, p, g, d, and e is the Balance of
atoms C, H, O, N.
C: 6s=1x+2p+3g+1d
H: 12s+3b=1.82x+6p+2e
O: 6s= 0.5x+2p+3g+2d+e
N: b=0.2x
For ethanol production can be redox balance expressed as follows:
Degree of reduction
CwHxOyNz
¡s= (4w+x-2y-3z)/w
¡s= 4
¡x= 4.2
¡P= 6
¡G= 4.67
Cs ¡s = 6X4= 24
Cx ¡x = 1X4.2= 4.2
CP ¡P = 2X6= 12
CG ¡G = 3X4.67= 14.01
Substitute all the value in redox balance:
24s=12p +4.2x+14.01g
s=1
The ethanol stoichiometric coefficient, p is then
p= 1.530
Other unknown stoichiometric coefficients d, b and e, are found from the balance of atoms:
d=1.649
e=2.247
x= 0.9
g= 0.618
¡x/s = g cells produced/g substrate consumed
¡x/s = x(MW cells)/(MW substrate)
MW (CH1.83O0.56N0.17 )= 25.17
MW(ETHANOL, C2H6O)= 46
MW(GLYCEROL, C3H8O3)= 92
¡x/s (CH1.83O0.56N0.17 )= 0.126g/g
¡p/s(ETHANOL, C2H6O) = 0.391g/g
¡p/s (GLYCEROL, C3H8O3)= 0.079g/g
Stripping of some ethanol from the liquid phase to the gaseous phase during fermentation
process is a common cause of error in the mass balances. If the carbon balance, according to
experimental data, shows that some carbon is missing in the products, the redox balance is
used to identify so far unknown compound and subsequently satisfied the carbon balance. But
in that case there is a good reason to believe that the missing component is ethanol that is
stripped off.
The reaction heat qR (kJ/mol),related to the consumed glucose,
Re= (rNDs)/m
where, r= density, 1000 kg/m3
N= agitator speed,2.5 per sec
Ds=impeller diameter, 0.97m
m= viscosity, 8.90X10-4 kgm-1 s-1
Re=2.72 x 106
flow at this Re is fully turbulent
Np = 5.2
The pumping capacity, VP; the circulation time, tc; the mixing time,tm; the power
consumption,P; the impeller tip speed,Vt ; and the ratio of power input and volume of liquid,
P/VL are:
Vp = Nf.N.ds3
= (0.72).(2.5).(0.97)3
Vp = 1.643 m3s-1
tc= (VL)/( VP)
= (52.5)/(1.643)
tc =32.0 s
tm = 223.5log(VL)- 1004.6
= 223.5 log(52500)-1004.6
tm = 50.4 s
P= nINp LN3ds5
= (4).(5.2).(1000).(2.5)3.(0.97)5
=276256 J.s-1
P = 276256 W
Vt = .N.ds
= .(2.5).(0.97)
Vt = 7.618m/s
P/VL = (261728)/(52.5)
P/VL = 5260 W.m-3
HEAT TRANSFER:
The total heat exchange can be calculated, from the practical point of view, from the
expression:
Heat generated by agitation, QP = P, equals 261 728 J/s. Reaction heat generated during
ethanol fermentation is
Where dsR is the mole amount of consumed glucose during ethanol production (fermentation
time equals 11.4 hours when the gluc ose conversion 97 % is achieved (see part Mathematical
model below) and qR the reaction heat, (kJ/mol).
The mass amount of the consumed glucose is then:
Where cso is the initial glucose concentration (cso= 200g/L) and cs is the final concentration of
glucose (cs=6.0 g/L) and VL is the volume of the liquid (VL= 52.5 m3).
Mole amount of depleted glucose per one production cycle (11.4 hours) equals:
=56.583Kmol
Reaction heat (J/s) is:
Mass flow of cooling water, mc (kg/s), can be calculated from simplified enthalpy balance of a
fermenter as:
The heat surface area, A, is calculated from the heat transfer rate equation:
Where th the temperature of the hot (fermentation) medium, tc the medium temperature of
the cooling medium and kA the overall heat transfer coefficient relate to the heat surface area.
The overall heat transfer coefficient can be calculated from the relation as follows:
Calculation of the convection heat transfer coefficient for water αc.
The convection heat transfer coefficient on side of cooling water, αc, is calculated from the
following equation:
Where c is the water heat conductivity, din is the inner pipe diameter, Nuc is the Nusselt
number which is calculated from empirical criterion equations which have for each geometry
specific form. Criterion equation in the case that cooling water flows inside the tube under
turbulent conditions is
Reynolds number is given as:
Where dc = din is the inner diameter of the pipe (internal coil), wc is the velocity of water flowing
within the pipe calculated from the continuity equation, c is the water density and c is the
water viscosity determined for the average temperature.
= 0.659m/s
Prandtl number is given as:
=7.03
Where c is the water thermal conductivity and cpc the specific heat capacity of water.
The Nusselt number is calculated from the criterion equation:
Nuc= 0.023Rec0.8 Prc0.4
=(0.023).(83127)0.8.(7.03)0.4
= 432.8
The convention heat transfer coefficient on side of cooling water is then:
Calculation of the convection heat transfer coefficient for fermentation medium αh (physical
properties of fermentation medium were approximated by the physical properties of water):
The convection heat transfer coefficient on side of fermentation broth, α h, is given as:
whereh is the heat conductivity of fermentation medium, dout is the outer pipe diameter, Nuh
is the Nusselt number which is calculated from the empirical criterion equations that for the
case that internal coil added near the inner surface of a bioreactor is as follows:
Nuh = 0.17 Reh0.67 Prh0.37 (ds/dR)0.1 (dh/dR)0.5
Where Reh is the Reynolds number, Prh the Prandtl number for fermentation medium, ds the
stirrer diameter, dh = dout the outer diameter of the cooling tube, dR the inner bioreactor
diameter.
Reynolds number is given as:
= ((0.997)2.(2.5).(1000))/(1.2x10-3)
=1960208
where ds is the stirrer diameter, N is the stirrer frequency, h is the density and h the viscosity
of the fermentation medium determined for the temperature 30 °C.
Prandtl number is given as:
= ((4000).(1.2x10-3))/(0.56)
=8.57
Where the thermal conductivity, h , and the specific heat capacity, cph , of fermentation
medium is approximated as for water.
The Nusselt number is calculated from the criterion equation:
Nuh = 0.17 Reh0.67 Prh0.37 (ds/dR)0.1 (dh/dR)0.5
= (0.17).(1960208)0.67.(8.57)0.37.(0.97/3.1)0.1.(0.139/3.1)0.5
=1164
The convection heat transfer coefficient on side of hot (fermentation) medium is then as
follows:
= ((1164).(0.56))/(0.139)
=4688 W.m-2.K-1
The overall heat transfer coefficient, related to the fermentation medium surface area, KA is
given as:
= 1/((1/4688)+(0.139/2.15(ln(0.139/0.127)))+(0.139/(2041x0.127))
=846.6 W.m-2.K-1
Where λh is the thermal conductivity of the stainless steel wall.
The heat surface area, A, is then as follows:
= 338437/(846.6x(30-20))
A = 40.0 m2
Mass transfer
For calculation of (KLad)p the relation as follows is used
Diffusion coefficients of oxygen and ethanol in water (30 °C) is 2.5x 10-9 m2s-1 and 1.28 x109
m2s-1, respectively.
Volumetric mass transfer coefficient of oxygen (for aeration system) is expressed
where k = 0.0018, α=0.3 and β = 0.7.
The superficial gas velocity is defined as:
Where SR is the inner bioreactor cross section area.
The aeration rate, VG, specified in VVM (volume of gas/volume of liquid/minute), equals 0.3.
The aeration rate, VG, and the inner bioreactor cross section area, SR, and the superficial gas
velocity and the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient (KLad) are then:
= (0.3/60)52.5
= 0.2625 m3/s
= (x3.12)/4
= 7.548 m2
= 0.035 m/s
(KLad)= 0.0018x us0.3(PG/VL)0.7
= 0.0018x 0.03480.3(138128/52.5)0.7
= 0.163 s-1
Volumetric ethanol mass transfer coefficient (used in material balance of ethanol) is:
=(1.28x10-9/2.5x10-9)(0.163)
=0.083 s-1
Mathematical model
Material balance of the key species (biomass, X, glucose, S, ethanol, P, glycerol, G), expressed as
a system of the ordinary differential equations in the liquid phase, is as follows:
and material balance of ethanol stripped into the gaseous phase is
where Cpg is the equilibrium ethanol concentration expressed through the liquid phase, V g the
volume of the bioreactor above the liquid phase, R the universal gas constant, T temperature in
units of Kelvin, HP is the Henry’s constant for ethanol.
