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ISSN 1546-9239
2009 Science Publications
INTRODUCTION
Solubilization of oxygen in liquid medium
constitutes one of the decisive factors leading to the
success of fermentation processes. More often than not,
wholly oxygenation of vessel would be impossible
without some form of mechanical agitation[1]. Stirred
tank impellers are typically classified based on the
discharged flow from the blade tips, i.e., radial and
axial or as indicated by the physical size with respect to
tank internal diameter. Open type impellers have from
one third to half of Di/DT ratio. Else, if the diameter
ratio is higher or as found in some setup, quite close to
the vessel wall to effect a scraping action, impellers are
otherwise generalized as proximity type agitators[2].
Open type are primarily employed in aerobic
fermentation whereas proximity types are mostly
associated with the bulk blending of viscous non-
k La = a
Pg
(U )
g
(1)
Corresponding Author: Arbakariya B. Ariff, Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Telephone: +603-8946 7516
848
Fig. 1: Diagram of experimental setup for stirred tank bioreactor fitted with HRI agitator
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(2)
C p (t)
*
L
= K n 1
(4)
(5)
k La
ke
e ke t
e k L at
k e k La
k e k La
= K n
= 1+
850
Y = 0 +
Where:
Y = The estimate response
i = The coefficients indicating the relative importance
of the associated X correlator values.
Upon examining the general form of kLa
correlation, conformation to the linear polynomial
function as in Eq. 6 was made possible by simply
converting beforehand all quantitative values of test
variables and the corresponding responses to natural
logarithmic form leading to Eq. 7. The minimum and
maximum values of variables in actual, logarithmic and
coded factors are shown in Table 1.
ln(k L a) = A + b ln
Pg
+ c ln ( U g ) + d ln ( a )
ln high
7.530
-5.422
-1.457
Coded low
-1
-1
-1
Coded high
1
1
1
(6)
i X i
ln low
4.655
-6.808
-6.908
(7)
851
(8)
(9)
(10)
(a)
100
(11)
(b)
(12)
Table 3: Correlation indices, mean errors and linear regression coefficients of experimental kLa data fitted to the predictive RSM correlations
Correlation indices for kLa equation in power law form
Mean
Linear regression coefficients
-------------------------------------------------------------------------error
------------------------------------------------Liquid system a
b
c
d
(%)
a1
a2
R2
-2
Case A
1.62610
0.883
0.765
11.34
0.0017
0.888
0.9785
Case B
4.12810-4
1.145
0.347
18.44
0.0036
0.938
0.9413
Case C
7.19710-3
0.254
0.383
-0.145
12.59
0.0002
0.978
0.9292
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Liquid system
Distilled water
Non-coalescent:
i. 0.5 M Na2SO4
ii. Fermentation media
Viscous CMC (0.2-0.8% w/v)
Helical screw
Viscous CMC (0.2-0.5% w/v)
Open type
Water
Electrolytes solutions
1 RT
0.5 M Na2SO4
3 RT
0.5 M Na2SO4
1 RT
Viscous CMC (1.0 % w/v)
2 RT
Viscous CMC (0.25% w/v)
3 RT
Viscous CMC (0.5% w/v)
RT = Rushton disc turbine
Correlation coefficients
-----------------------------------------------------------------a
b
c
d
1.62610-2
0.883
0.765
4.12810-4
1.145
0.347
7.197103
3.420103
2.600102
2.000103
1.350103
4.000104
1.070103
8.160104
2.160103
0.254
0.190
0.400
0.700
0.946
1.210
0.944
0.680
0.360
0.383
0.370
0.500
0.200
0.400
0.400
0.400
0.400
0.560
-0.145
-0.36
-
Reference
Present work
Tecante et al.[3]
Vant [4]
Linek et al.[7]
Arjunwadkar et al.[8]
Puthli et al.[9]
DISCUSSION
Modeling exercise shows that the linear type first
order surface response model chosen would adequately
explained the effect of two to three affecting factors,
i.e., the Pg/V, Ug and a on kLa only when the exact
optimum point was not of particular interest.
This is rather obvious looking at the flat profile of
3D contour and surface plots for distilled water and
concentrated CMCNa solutions featured in Fig. 3.
Cumbrous higher order functions are usually required
in order to detect the presence of curvature or peak in
response surface and hence, closer approximation to the
general vicinity of precise kLa prediction. Nevertheless,
it might not be necessary for these cases since the
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2.
CONCLUSION
The RSM treatment on historical kLa dataset for
correlation development was considered successful in
providing good statistical fit between calculated and
experimental data within 20% error level. The
correlations adequately describe the effect of operating
variables and fluid properties with kLa augmentation to
be primarily dependent more on impeller power uptake
for non-viscous media. Nevertheless rheological
modification towards viscous shear thinning conditions
collectively caused the effect of superficial gas velocity,
Ug to be more influential than Pg/V term. Upon
comparison with literature models, HRI hypothetically
fares better as gas-liquid contactor than a single
Rushton turbine and also quite remarkable when
compared against a triple arrangement. In pseudoplastic
solutions, design having larger wall to blades clearance
would perform better above a certain power uptake. On
that basis, the kLa correlation obtained from the current
system actually can be assumed to give more valid
representative of a well mixed gas-liquid phase and
uniform bulk mixing in stirred tank than what was
reported for the turbulent open type stirrer system.
REFERENCES
1.
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