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Performance characteristics of yeast growth in a modified airlift fermenter

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Abstract

Two types of airlift fermenters, conventional (UT-ALF) and modified (CDT-ALF) were investigated to evaluate their performance with respect to baker's yeast growth. The riser tube of conventional external loop airlift fermenter is replaced by a converging-diverging tube, which is named as modified airlift fermenter having downcomer to riser cross-sectional area ratio A d /A r =1.8.

The results were compared for the two types of airlift fermenter. A modified growth kinetics model for baker's yeast with oxygen as limiting substrate, has been proposed. The values of K s and K d of the growth model were determined from experimental data. The proposed model represented better for CDT-ALF system compared to UT-ALF. Compared to UT-ALF, CDT-ALF always showed higher cell mass concentration and low residual sugar concentration irrespective of the operating conditions. At optimum operating condition (initial glucose concentration 30 g/l, air flow rate 0.5 vvm and fermentation time 8 hrs.) 16.7% higher cell mass was observed in CDT-ALF compared to that in UT-ALF and yield (Y x/s ) was found to be 0.51 which was theoretically very near to maximum achievable value.

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Abbreviations

ALF:

Airlift fermenter

UT:

Uniform tube

CDT:

Converging-diverging tube

A r :

Cross sectional area of riser

A d :

Cross sectional area of downcomer

C s :

Glucose cone, at any time, g/l

C l :

Dissolved oxygen conc, at any time, g/l

μ max :

Max. sp. growth rate, hr−1

μ :

Sp. growth rate, hr−1

X 0 :

Initial cell mass cone. (dry wt.), g/l

X :

Cell mass conc. at any time ‘t’, g/l

C s0 :

Initial glucose conc., g/l

C s :

Glucose conc. at any time ‘t’, g/l

C l :

Equilibrium conc. of oxygen, 0.0076 g/l

y x/s :

Yield coefficient (dimensionless)

y x/s :

gm cell mass produced/gm glucose consumed

Y O2 :

gm cell produced/gm oxygen consumed

k d :

maintenance coefficient, hr−1

K L a :

volumetric mass transfer coefficient, hr−1

k s :

saturation constant for the substrate, g/l

K O2 :

saturation constant for the substrate of dissolved oxygen, g/l.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, 721302, Kharagpur, India

    T. K. Ghosh, B. R. Maiti & B. C. Bhattacharyya

Authors
  1. T. K. Ghosh
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  2. B. R. Maiti
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  3. B. C. Bhattacharyya
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This work was supported by a research grant from the Department of Biotechnology Govt. of India.

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Ghosh, T.K., Maiti, B.R. & Bhattacharyya, B.C. Performance characteristics of yeast growth in a modified airlift fermenter. Bioprocess Eng. 10, 241–250 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00369536

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00369536

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