Oxygen mass transfer and gas holdup in a bubble column bioreactor with biosynthesis liquids

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Abstract
The influence of the rheology of some antibiotic biosynthesis liquids produced by Streptomyces aureofaciens, Nocardia mediterranei and Penicillium chrysogenum on the volumetric liquid phase oxygen transfer coefficient, kLa, and gas holdup, εG, together with the influence of superficial gas velocity, were studied in a bubble column bioreactor, using samples of fermentation liquids taken from industrial stirred tank fermenters, at 30‐hour intervals during fermentation batch.The results were compared to those of previous studies from literature on non‐Newtonian homogeneous fluids, such as CMC‐Na, xanthan and starch solutions, respectively.In the heterogeneous broths, εG and kLa decreased with increasing apparent viscosity of the broth and increased with increasing superficial velocity.The experimental data were correlated using non‐linear regression with correlation coefficients above 0.85.