Fundamental Bioengineering

10Design of Ideal Bioreactors

John Villadsen

Summary

The ideal bioreactor, both the ideal stirred tank reactor (STR) and the ideal plug flow reactor (PFR), is the subject of this chapter. The focus is on design of different types of industrially important bioreactors. These are generally STRs, first of all the continuous stirred reactor CSTR, working in steady state. The STR is characterized by no spatial variation in any of the variables, concentration of reactants, temperature, and pH. Different ways of operating steady-state CSTRs are described with maximum volumetric productivity as an important objective. The advantage of using biomass recirculation and of operating with several reactors in parallel or in series is described. Next fed-batch operation is discussed, and this mode of operation is compared with steady-state CSTR. New types of reactors, the so-called loop reactors, which are better suited for high mass transfer of, for example, oxygen are introduced and their use is exemplified by the design of an industrial plant for single-cell protein production. Finally, the design of an industrially important process, the production of succinic acid from glucose in several reactor types, is used as an example.

10.0 Introduction

In this chapter, the fundamental disciplines of stoichiometry, biochemical kinetics, and thermodynamics from Chapters 2, 3, 7, and 9 will be combined to design reactors in which the processes can be carried out at any scale. Transport phenomena, ...