CLL 780

Tutorial 3- Bioreactor mixing and scale up

Basics to revise before solving:
A) Bioreactor mixing and power requirement
B) Power number, Aeration number
C) Bioreactor scale up
Q1. Calculate the power requirement with and without aeration, of a 1.5
m diameter stirred tank, containing water 1.5 m deep, equipped with a six
blade Rushton turbine that is 0.5 m in diameter d, with 0.25 d long and
0.25 d wide, operating at an operational speed of 180 rpm. Air is
suspended from the tank bottom at a rate of 0.6 m3/min. Operation is at
room temperature. Values of water viscosity is 0.001 kg/m s and water
density is 1000 kg/m3.
(Note: Use the plot between Re and power number as provided below in Q2)

Empirical relation between P gassed (PG) and P non gassed (Po) is given
as: Log(PG/Po) = -192 (Di/Dt)4.38 (Re)0.115 (Fr)0.653 (Na)
where Di is the impeller diameter and Dt is the tank diameter. Re, Fr and
Na are the Reynolds number, Froude number and the aeration number
respectively.
Also find out the KLa for oxygen absorption into water for the case of
aerated stirred tank.
Empirical relation for KLa is given as: KLa = 0.026 (PG/V)0.4 (Vs)0.5
where PG/V is the power to volume ratio and Vs is the superficial gas
velocity.
Q2. A bacterial fermentation was carried out in a reactor containing broth
with average density 1200 kg/m3 and viscosity 0.02 Ns/m2. The broth
was agitated at 90 rpm and air was introduced through the sparger at a
flow rate of 0.4 vvm. The fermenter was equipped with two sets of flat

blade turbine impellers and four baffles. The dimensions of vessel,

impellers and baffle width were:
Tank diameter, Dt = 4 m; impeller diameter, Di = 2 m; baffle width,
Wb = 0.4 m; Liquid depth, H = 6.5 m.

Determine a) ungassed power, P ; b) gassed power, Pg ; c) kLa

Q3. A bioreactor with internal diameter of 2 m is equipped with baffles

and two sets of flat blade impellers and four baffles. The impeller has a
diameter of 1.25 m, and the baffle width is 20 cm. The viscosity of the
liquid broth is 0.025 Nsm-2 and the density is 1220 Kg/m3. Determine the
power number and the power required for the two sets of impellers if the
rotational speed of the impeller is 60 rpm.
Q4. A vessel is to be designed to contain a liquid slurry of suspended
particulates using a mechanical stirrer. To ensure that the particulate
remain in suspension, scale tests are carried out under fully turbulent
conditions in a tank with a diameter of 0.6 m. The test tank has baffles
and a flat blade impeller for which the tank diameter to impeller ration is
3. The suspension is considered to be successful for a mixing speed of
3Hz for which the power consumption is 0.18 kW and Reynolds number
of 145000. Following the success of the test mixing, determine the rotor
speed that would ensure that the same level of mixing is achieved at full
scale if a geometrically similar vessel is to be scaled up by a linear scale
of 6. Also find out the Reynolds number for the scaled up vessel assuming
constant physical properties and no change in operating conditions.
Q5. Consider the scale up of a fermentation from a 10 L to 10,000 L
vessel. The small fermenter has a height to diameter ratio of 3. The
impeller diameter is 30% of the tank diameter. Agitator speed is 500 rpm
and three Rushton impellers are used. Determine the dimensions of the
large fermenter and the agitation speed for:
a) Constant P/V
b) Constant impeller tip speed
c) Constant Reynolds number