NUMERICAL STUDY WITH CFD OF THE POWER INPUT IN A STIRRED-TANK BIOREACTOR OF STANDARD GEOMETRY VERSUS NON-STANDARD WITH MULTIPLE

IMPELLERS
1 Edgar Honorato Sanchez & Eleazar M. Escamilla Silva1
1

Departamento de Ingenier a Qu mica, Instituto Tecnologico de Celaya, Av. Tecnologico y A. Garc a Cubas, S/N, C.P. 38010, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

honorato.sanchez@iqcelaya.itc.mx

Abstract
Stirred tank bioreactors are common in the bioprocess industry. One of the most important parameters in such bioreactors is the power consumption of their agitator which determines the behavior of the biological system and is often used as a criterion for the scale change (scale-up/down). In this numerical study were simulated various congurations of standard geometry bioreactor versus non-standar geometry, and results obtainded show a 68 % difference in power input between base case and the case 7.

Numerical simulation
An accurate CFD model should be able to predict important parameters such as the overall power input to a stirred tank. For solving a set of nonlinear governing equations (ReynoldAveraged Navier-Stokes and turbulence models )[3, 1], 3D CFD code, Fluent version 6.3 and MixSim version 2.0, were used.

Power consumption
The power can be directly estimated from a calculation of the total torque required to rotate the impeller[2]. The torque on each blade can be calculated as: M=
i

Introduction
The power input by agitator is one of the must signicant design parameters for a stirred tank bioreactor. It is affected by the physycal properties, operating and geometrical parameters[4]. Studying the power consumption of various combinations of different impeller types to nd the optimal conguration has been the interest of many researchers, however most of these correlations are limited to ranges of applicability and do not contain comprehensively the parameters which may affect mixing power.

(p)i Airi

(1)

The power required for rotation of the impeller at a steady rotation speed of N revolutions per second for an impeller having m blades is given by: P = 2N M m (2)

Methodology
The numerical study of the bioreactors was analized, in all cases, with an agitation velocity of 600 rpm, water at 20 C with working volume of 4.1 liters and a total volume of 7.0 liters. Main dimensions of the geometry of stirred tank bioreactors with Rushton turbines[5].
Symbol Tank diameter Dt Tank height Ht Liquid height Hl Impeller diameter Di Bafes widht wbf Bafe thickness thbf Impeller blade width wbl Impeller blade thickness thbl Disk diameter Dd Blade height hbl Disk thickness thdd Inner Diameter id Hub diameter hd Hub height hh Bottom clearance C Impeller spacing C Range Non-Standard Standard 1 Standard 2 0,16m 0,173m 0,207m 0,35m 0,296m Dt 0,217m Dt 0,122m 0,06m 1/3Dt 1/3Dt 1/10Dt 12/Dt 1/2Dt 1/20Di 1/20Di 1/40Di 1/4Di 1/4Di 1/4Di 1/40Di 1/50Di 1/50Di 2/3Di 3/4Di 3/4Di 1/5Di 1/5Di 1/5Di 0,05Di 0,03Di 0,03Di 1/2Di 1/2Di 1/2Di 1/4Di 1/4Di 1/4Di 1/5Di 1/5Di 1/5Di Di 1/3Dt 1/3Dt Di Di

The power consumption of a stirrer is described by the power number, NP , which depends on uids properties and on the gemetrical parameters of the mixing vessel. It may be expressed by: P NP = (3) 5 3 N Di

Results
Table 2: Torque estimated for each case. Torque (N m) Bottom turbine Middle turbine Uper turbine Total Case 1 0.0462 0.0452 0.0453 0.1368 Case 2 0.0462 0.0473 0.0469 0.1405 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 0.0455 0.0933 0.0374 0.0389 0.0388 0.0481 0.0442 0.0462 0.0426 0.0936 0.0933 0.0817 0.0851 0.0814

(1/4 1/2)Dt (1/10 1/12)Dt (1/40 1/20)Di 1/4 1/5 1/6 (0,01 0,025)Di (3/4 2/3)Di (1/4 1/6)Di (0,01 0,05)Di 1/2Di 1/4Di 1/5Di (1/6 1/2)Dt (1/6 1/2)Dt

Table 3: Power input for each case analized. Power input (W ) Bottom turbine Middle turbine Uper turbine Total Case 1 2.904 2.842 2.848 8.594 Case 2 2.905 2.974 2.948 8. 827 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 2.858 5.865 2.351 2.441 2.438 3.023 2.780 2.903 2.674 5.881 5.865 5.131 5.344 5.112

Table 4: Power number calculated for each case. Power number (NP ) Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Bottom turbine 3.74 3.74 3.68 7.56 3.03 3.15 3.14 Middle turbine 3.66 3.83 3.89 3.58 3.74 3.44 Uper turbine 3.67 3.80 Total 11.07 11.37 7.58 7.56 6.61 6.88 6.59

Non-Standard Bioreactor
The g. 1 shows the non-standar bioreator (Applikon Bioreactor 7.0L), and the computational geometry. In g. 2 shows the different cases that were analyzed in this work.

Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Case 4 Figure 1: Bioreactor and computational geometry used for simulation. Case 1 (Base case): 3 Rushton turbines, 3 Bafes, and C = Di

Case 5

Case 6

Figure 3: Velocity radial perles for the different cases simulated and analized.

Discussion
According to the power input results obtained for different simulated cases, the Case 7 require less power compared with the others cases mainly with Cases 1 and 2. Is also observed that the increase in the number the turbines and bafes leads to increased power consumption. The results show the effect that would scaling up and down using the criterion of geometric similarity and constant power input in a non-standard geometry bioreactor as well as a signicant mistake when using the correlations proposed for standard bioreactors.

Referencias
[1] Campolo, M.; Sbrizzai, F. and Soldati, A. (2003). ((Time-dependent ow structures and Lagrangian mixing in Rushton-impeller bafed-tank reactor)). Chemical Engineering Science, 58, pp. 16151629.

Figure 2: Geometries and congurations of the different cases that were simulated. Case 2: 3 Rushton Turbines, 4 Bafes, and C = Di; Case 3: 2 Rushton turbines, 3 Bafes, and C = Di; Case 4: 1 Rushton turbine, 4 Bafes, and Dt = Ht; Case 5: 2 Rushton turbines, 3 Bafes, and C = 1,5Di; Case 6: 2 Rushton turbines, 4 Bafes, and C = 1,5Di; Case 7: 2 Rushton turbines, 4 Bafes, C = Di, and Hl = Dt.
North American Mixing Forum (nafm)

(2002). Computational Fluid Mixing. Fluent, Lebanon, NH, USA. [2] Marshal, Elizabeth Marden and Bakker, Andre [3] Ranade, V.V. (2002). Computational Flow Modeling for Chemical Reactor Engineering. volume 5 of Process Systems Engineering Series. Academic Press. [4] Taghavi, M.; Zadghaffari, R.; Moghaddas, J. and Moghaddas, Y. (2011). ((Experimental and CFD investigation of power consumption in a dual Rushton turbine stirred tank)). Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 89, pp. 280290. [5] Tatterson, G. B. (1994). Scale-up and Design of Industrial Mixing Process. McGraw-Hill.

Mixing XXIII Conference, June 17-23, 2012, Mayan Riviera, Mexico