Effects of air-lift reactor dimensions on its hydrodinamic characteristics

Abstract

In this study the hydrodynamic characteristics of the external loop airlift bioreactors were investigated. The influence of reactor height and solid particles concentration on the mean liquid circulation velocity was examined. Also, the possibility of theoretical prediction of this liquid circulation velocity was assessed. The correlation originally proposed by Glennon et al. (Chem. Eng. Commun. 121 (1993) 183-192) for two phase system liquid velocity prediction was extended and corrected for application to three phase systems. The accuracy of this new correlation was tested on our experimental data. The corrected correlation shows higher accuracy than the originally proposed one. In addition, the influence of reactor geometry and solid loading on reactor working performances was established.

Keywords

• air-lift reactors
• hydrodynamics
• gas hold-up
• liquid velocity correlations
• ca-alginat beads
• three-phase systems