Research Article

Received: 16 May 2012 Revised: 23 July 2012 Accepted: 29 July 2012 Published online in Wiley Online Library: 24 September 2012

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jctb.3917

Dynamic and local gas holdup studies in

external loop recirculating airlift reactor with
two rolls of fiberglass packing using electrical
resistance tomography
Mian Hamood-ur-Rehman, Farhad Ein-Mozaffari and Yaser Dahman∗

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Airlift bioreactors have been used extensively in biotechnology industries in recent years in a variety of
arrangements and applications. The insertion of packing inside the bioreactors has the potential to provide high productivity
within a compact size through utilizing immobilized species.

RESULTS: A novel recirculating external loop airlift bioreactor that has two rolls of fiberglass packing and a gas distributor in
between was designed and built. Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) images showed that the gas holdup increased after
installing the packing and the gas distributor. Gas holdup in the riser increased with decreasing static liquid height in the
bioreactor. This decreased the liquid superficial velocity, which contributed to a higher gas holdup in the bioreactor. Results
also showed that riser gas holdup varied slightly with different sparger configurations. Higher gas holdup increases the oxygen
mass transfer rate by increasing the residence time and interfacial mass transfer area.

CONCLUSION: ERT results showed that fiberglass packing with an installed gas distributor in bioreactors can achieve higher
gas holdup at higher superficial gas velocity. This can contribute to improved conversion in bioreactors with packing through
utilizing higher biomass concentrations and higher oxygen concentration.


c 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords: external loop airlift bioreactor; electrical resistance tomography (ert); gas holdup; multiphase flow; tomograms

NOTATION INTRODUCTION
Dr diameter of riser (m) Airlift bioreactors are an important class of bioreactors that are
do diameter of each hole on sparger (m) widely employed in many engineering applications associated
Htc circulating liquid length in the top connecting section (m) with aerobic and anaerobic fermentations, in addition to wastew-
N number of holes (-) ater treatment and petrochemical industries.1 – 7 This class of
Q volumetric gas flow rate (m3 s−1 ) bioreactors is divided into two main subclasses of internal and
external loop airlift bioreactors. The main difference in the design
tr liquid residence time in the riser (s)
of the external loop airlift bioreactors is that the liquid circulation
tc circulation time (s)
in the riser and downcomer takes place in two separate com-
UG superficial gas velocity through each hole of sparger (m s−1 )
partments, which are connected by a pipe at the bottom and
Ugr superficial gas velocity in the riser (m s−1 ) a pipe or a tank at the top.8 – 10 This design leads to maximum
We Weber number (-) deaeration in the gas disengagement section of the external loop
airlift bioreactors. This develops a difference in density and hydro-
Greek symbols static pressure in the riser and downcomer, which results in lower
σ1 conductivity of the liquid phase (mS cm−1 ) gas recirculation and higher liquid circulation. This consequently
σ2 conductivity of the gas phase (mS cm−1 ) enhances mixing and heat transfer in the bioreactor.5,7,8,11 – 14
σmc local value of the mixture conductivity distribution of the
two phases (mS cm−1 )
σL surface tension of the liquid phase (kg s−2 )
∗
εg gas holdup (-) Correspondence to: Yaser Dahman, Department of Chemical Engineering,
Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada.
εgr gas holdup in the riser (-) E-mail: ydahman@ryerson.ca
ρg density of gas (kg m−3 )
 dimensionless factor (-) Department of Chemical Engineering, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street,
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εgd gas holdup in the downcomer (-) Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

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Gas holdup is used to improve respiration and metabolism
processes. It plays a vital role in specifying hydrodynamics,
design, modeling, operation, and scale-up of airlift bioreactors.
This parameter determines the residence time of the gas in the
liquid phase. In combination with the bubble size, it influences
the gas–liquid interfacial area per unit volume, the mass transfer
efficiency from gas to liquid and the circulation liquid velocity in
airlift reactors. The gas holdup impacts the total volume of the
bioreactor for any range of operating conditions, which depends
on the maximum gas holdup that must be accommodated.
In the present study, an external loop recirculating airlift
bioreactor was built and tested. This bioreactor has two rolls
of fiberglass packing installed in the riser with a gas distributor
between the two packing to ensure optimum distribution of
gas bubbles. The presence of two packing allows for improved
residence time and thus bioconversion in the presence of
more oxygen. Fiberglass packing has widely been utilized for
biotechnological and biomedical applications. Fan and Chen15
investigated the performance of a fiber-packed channel bioreactor
using microchips along with its application in protein analysis. This
type of fiber-based microchip bioreactor provides a promising
platform for high-throughput protein identification. Furthermore,
Delguste et al.16 used a fiberglass packing to immobilize different
bone biomarkers to investigate the applications of Tiludronate,
a bisphosphonate, in veterinary medicine to treat orthopedic
conditions in the horse. Al-Dohail et al.17 utilized fiberglass packing
to immobilize the different types of proteins. They investigated the
effects of the probiotic, Lactobacillus acidophilus, on the growth
performance, haematology parameters and immunoglobulin
concentration in African catfish Clarias gariepinus fingerling.
Generally, this type of bioreactor with immobilized enzymes or
microorganisms is utilized in a wide range of bioengineering
applications. In general, packed-bed bioreactors (PBRs) have the
potential to provide extremely high productivity within a compact
size. They have been proven to be the potential future preferred
production tool for making cell-culture derived products. PBRs
have also been utilized for biomedical applications. PBRs were
used to culture immobilized hepatocytes as a bioartificial liver
device. This type of bioreactor supports a large total number of
immobilized hepatocytes and enhances hepatocyte proliferation
rate, which proliferate poorly in vitro.18
An electrical resistance tomography technique (ERT) was utilized
to visualize the distribution of the gas phase in the liquid
phase in the bioreactor riser and downcomer through 2D and
3D tomograms. ERT images were analyzed to quantify the
gas holdup inside the bioreactor for the different design and
operating parameters. In previous work, Han et al.12 employed
inverted U-type manometers connected to the pressure taps
located at different axial positions to measure the gas holdup
in a gas–liquid–solid inverse fluidized airlift bioreactor. Under
sterile fermentation conditions, the use of a manometer may
cause contamination.8 Karamenev et al.19 utilized a hot film
anemometer to measure the gas holdup through the difference
in heat conductivity of the liquid and gas phase. However, this
technique is intrusive and affects the flow pattern within the
bioreactor. The non-invasive ultrasonic technique can be used
to investigate liquid–gas flow in the bioreactor based on the
variation in acoustic velocity of sound waves travelling through
the medium. Although this experimental method can be used
in opaque fluids, Soong et al.20 reported that a drawback of this
technique is the low variation of ultrasonic velocity in fermentation
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media. Ishtinkana and Benington21 employed a height difference
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technique, a pressure difference technique, and ERT to measure
the gas holdup in a bubble column reactor. They found that
the height difference between gassed and ungassed operation
measured the overall gas holdup to an accuracy of 75%, while
differential pressure measurements along the column axis made it
possible to determine both the average and axial holdup profiles.
ERT images enabled them to explore the flow of air bubbles in the
column. Furthermore, Jin et al.22 also utilized ERT to measure the
phase holdup in a gas–solid–liquid external loop airlift bioreactor.
They noted that this technique determined the gas holdup and
solid holdup together as two non-conductive phases. In order
to solve this problem, they coupled the ERT method with the
pressure difference technique. Generally, ERT has been applied to
visualize the flow pattern and distribution inside packed beds of
different and novel designs to improve reactor performance with
lower pressure drop.15 – 18,23
EXPERIMENT
Design and setup of bioreactor
An external loop recirculating airlift bioreactor was designed
and built in the present work with total working volume of
97 L. Polyvinyl chloride material was used to construct the
bioreactor and Fig. 1 shows the experimental setup and geometric
dimensions of the proposed bioreactor.
Optimum design parameters were obtained from the literature
and were applied in the present design as follows: optimum
performance was reported for bioreactors with height to diameter
ratio of the riser (H/Dr ) in the range 7.2 to 25.0, while the
corresponding ratio for the dowcomer (i.e. H/Dd ) was reported to
be in the range 15.2 to 29.3. Furthermore, optimum ratio between
the diameter of the riser and the downcomer (i.e. Dr /Dd ) was
reported to be between 1.0 and 3.0.9,12,23 – 26 As shown in Fig. 1,
and based on a proposed total height of ∼2 m for the bioreactor
in the present work, H/Dr was chosen to be 8, while H/Dd ∼ 19.6.
The ratio of Dr /Dd was 2.43. The distance between the center of the
riser and downcomer was designed to be 0.305 m.27 Reasonable
distance of ∼0.12 m was allowed between the gas distributor and
the top of the lower packing and bottom of the upper packing so
that the pressure of the fluid leaving the perforated plate could
not harm the fiberglass packing. The same distance was allowed
at the top of the upper packing so that the bubbles can uniformly
escape before entering into the upper connecting tube.28,29
Two rolls of fiberglass packing were employed in this study.
Each roll was initially a sheet of 0.234 m width; 6.3 m length and
0.0254 m thickness, which was tightly rolled and maintained in
the cylindrical shape with sufficient distance between each layer
(∼1 cm). The packing material roll had a 0.248 m diameter and
0.234 m height. The internal gas distributor (i.e. perforated plate)
was placed in the middle of the riser (i.e. at distance equivalent
to H/2 from the bottom of the bioreactor) between the two
roles of packing in the riser. The function of this perforated plate
was to break and regenerate the gas bubbles exiting the lower
packing and before entering the upper packing in the riser. The gas
distributor was designed to have 415 holes of diameter 0.002 m
(Fig. 1(c)). This diameter of each hole was essential to produce
small size bubbles escaping the perforated plate in a uniform
distribution, which was reported to achieve higher gas holdup
values.30
Two types of spargers were employed in the present study, a
cross-shaped and a circular sparger (Fig. 1(a) and (b)). The diameter
of each hole on the sparger was 0.002 m. The total number of holes
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Mixing in external loop recirculating airlift bioreactor with two rolls of packing
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the external loop recirculating airlift bioreactor with double rolls of packing with sparger and gas distributor configurations.
in the sparger was calculated based on the superficial gas velocity
in the riser (Ugr ). Weber number (We) introduced by Mersmann31
was used to design the sparger while preventing weeping flows
that influence the packed column internals. The Weber criterion
represented by Equation (1) has been used by several investigators
to design spargers based on Ugr .32,33 For spargers with hole
diameter between 1 mm and 5 mm, Weber number should have
a value of 2 for optimum operation conditions inside packed
columns.
We = ρG d0 UG2 /δL = 2 (1)
In Equation (2), do is the diameter of each hole on sparger, ρG
is the density of gas, σL is the surface tension of liquid and UG is
the superficial gas velocity through each hole in the sparger. UG
= 7.75 m s−1 was calculated based on the following parameters:
do = 2 mm, ρG = 1.206 kg m−3 and σL = 0.0724 kg s−2 . The
lowest value for Ugr was calculated based on the minimum value
of volumetric gas flow rate utilized (i.e. Q = 0.0005249 m3 s−1 ) and
the inner diameter of the riser (Dr = 0.248 m). The number of holes
in spargers was calculated from the general mass balance (overall
volumetric flow rate of air is equal to volumetric flow rate of air
through all sparger holes) according to Equation (2).
π 2 π of the bioreactor as of plane 8, plane 7, plane 6, and plane 5,
D Ugr = d02 UG N
4 r 4
Analytical technique
The ERT technique was used in the present study to characterize
the gas holdup in the packed bed external loop recirculating
airlift bioreactor. This instrument creates tomograms showing
the distribution of components within the sensing zone.34,35 This
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technology involves the installation of a number of electrodes
on the periphery of the vessel to be imaged.36 Fig. 2 shows
the ERT experimental setup, which includes the electrodes, data
acquisition system (ITS P2000, Manchester, UK), and a host
computer.
As shown in this figure, 16 equally spaced stainless steel
rectangular electrodes were fitted on the periphery of the riser
and downcomer in four planes on the riser and four planes on the
downcomer. Plane 5 was installed at the middle of the axial height
of the lower packing, while plane 6 was located at the middle of
the axial distance between the top of the lower packing and the
bottom of the perforated plate in the riser. Plane 7 was installed
at the middle of the axial distance between the bottom of the
upper packing and the top of the perforated plate, while plane 8
was located at the middle of the axial height of the upper packing.
Positions and dimensions of electrodes are summarized in Fig. 3.
The distance between plane 5 and plane 6 was 0.175 m,
the distance between plane 6 and plane 7 was 0.117 m, and
the distance between plane 7 and plane 8 was 0.175 m. The
distance between plane 5 and the bottom of the bioreactor
was 0.764 m. Plane 1, plane 2, plane 3, and plane 4 were
installed in the downcomer at the same level from the bottom
(2) respectively. All these electrodes were connected to the ITS P2000
data acquisition system (Manchester, UK) via co-axial cables.
The data acquisition system (DAS) was used to send current
to the electrodes fitted on the internal walls of the bioreactor.
Different measurement strategies are used to get the electrical
measurements using the electrodes. These strategies include
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the adjacent strategy, the opposite strategy, the diagonal or
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Figure 2. Bioreactor – ERT experimental work setup showing the electrodes interfacing with the data acquisition system and host computer.
cross-method strategy, and the conducting boundary strategy.
The adjacent measurement protocol was utilized in this study.37,38
The electrical current was applied between an adjacent pair
of electrodes. The DAS then measured the voltage difference
between all other pairs of adjacent electrodes. Other combinations
of adjacent electrode pairs went through the same procedure until
the full rotation was obtained on the bioreactor. The frequency
of 9600 kHz and injection current of 1.5 mA were employed
for all experiments in this study. DAS was connected to a host
computer through a communication port in order to collect and
store the data obtained during the tests. After the acquisition of
voltage measurements from the electrodes, an appropriate image
reconstruction algorithm is required. In this study, we employed
the non-iterative linear back-projection algorithm to create the
tomograms,39 which showed the cross-sectional distribution of
the electrical conductivity of the contents within the same
measurement plane.
Experimental procedure
Gas holdup (εg ) was measured for different bioreactor configura-
tions by the ERT system for the novel external loop recirculating
airlift bioreactor in Fig. 1. The different configurations of the biore-
actor include the effect of gas distributor in an empty riser (no
packing) and in a packed riser with one and two rolls of pack-
ing. This hydrodynamic parameter was determined by finding the
change in the fluid conductivity due to the presence of the gas
phase in the bioreactor using ERT.21,32,40,41 Tap water and air were
used as the liquid and gas phases in all experiments, respectively.
The bioreactor was filled with water to the desired static height.
Air was used as the gas phase, which was introduced through
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a sparger placed at the bottom of the riser. The volumetric gas
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flow rate (Q) of the sparging gas was controlled by a calibrated
rotameter.
The conductivity of the air–water mixture was monitored
using ERT. Data collection was stopped when a steady state
condition was achieved. The same procedure was repeated at
different gas flow rates. The local gas holdup fraction in the riser
and the downcomer was then measured using the conductivity
data obtained from the ERT system. The Maxwell equation (i.e.
Equation (3)) was applied to find values of εg .38
2σ1 + σ2 − 2σmc − (σmc σ2 /σ1 )
εg = (3)
σmc − σmc (σ2 /σ1 ) + 2(σ1 − σ2 )
In Equation (3), σ1 is the conductivity of the liquid phase, σ2 is
the conductivity of the gas phase and σmc is the reconstructed
measured conductivity for the gas–liquid mixture. The second
phase in the present study is air, which is non-conductive. By
substituting σ2 = 0 in Equation (3), the equation is simplified to:35
2σ1 − 2σmc
εg = (4)
2σ1 + σmc
The gas holdup in the downcomer was calculated from
Equation (4) based on the average values of mean conductivities
of the air–water mixture for all four planes installed in the
downcomer obtained from the ERT images. Same method was
applied to determine the gas holdup in the riser.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 4 shows the time series of tomographic images obtained
from eight measurement planes of the ERT system in an empty
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Figure 3. Schematic diagram showing positions and design specifications of the tomography electrodes.
column (with no packing) following air supply at a constant
superficial gas velocity of 3.264 × 10−2 m s−1 in the riser using the
cross-shaped sparger with a constant static liquid height of 1.63 m.
As shown in Figs 2 and 3, planes 1, 2, 3 and 4 were located from
the top to the bottom in the downcomer, while planes 5, 6, 7 and
8 were located from the bottom to the top in the riser. Examining
the color map in the tomograms of Fig. 4 (blue colour being the
lowest conductivity and red colour the highest), it is clear that
conductivity changed after air was introduced in the bioreactor.
When air was introduced at the bottom of the riser at t = 0 s,
the colour of the tomographic image of plane 5 (i.e. the closest
to sparger) changed slightly after 2 s from the pure red color
due to the increase of gas holdup in this plane, which represents
slight decrease in the conductivity. At t = 3 s, the colours of the
tomographic images of planes 6, 7, and 8 also changed to green
and yellow. The lower conductivity observed here is due to the
presence of air bubbles, which increased the gas holdup in the
bioreactor riser. Since the air has zero conductivity, the region
with lower conductivity value demonstrates the presence of more
air bubbles in the bioreactor.21,22,40,41 The change in the colours
of the tomograms obtained from planes 1, 2, 3, and 4 (located in
the downcomer; Fig. 4) changed slightly after 10 s of air purging.
This change in colour was due to the slight decrease in the fluid
conductivity in the downcomer after 10 s of purging, which is due
to the increase in gas holdup in the downcomer. The change in
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colors of tomograms recorded at planes 5, 6, 7, and 8 was obvious,
and the blue color represents maximum gas holdup in the riser
(i.e. lowest conductivity). Figure 5 represents the vertical slice of
the tomographic images and the 3D tomograms in the riser and
downcomer of the empty bioreactor at different superficial gas
velocities for the cross-shaped sparger at a constant static liquid
height of 1.63 m.
Similar to Fig. 4, images in Fig. 5 show that when no air was
supplied in the bioreactor, the conductivity of the liquid in the
bioreactor was high (red colour). When the air was injected at a
lower superficial gas velocity of 1.087 × 10−2 m s−1 in the riser,
most of the red coloured images in the riser turned yellow and
green. This change in colour was due to the presence of gas
bubbles and thus an increase in the gas holdup in the riser. The
change in colour of the tomographic images in the downcomer
was not noticeable due to the presence of very few bubbles
in the downcomer. However, it can also be seen in Fig. 5 that
when the air was supplied at a higher superficial gas velocity of
3.264 × 10−2 m s−1 in the riser of the bioreactor, the colour in
the riser turned blue, which represents lowest conductivity. The
colour in the downcomer slightly changed to yellow and green at
this highest gas velocity, which shows the presence of bubbles in
the downcomer.
Figure 6 shows the change in mean conductivity values with
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time for the eight planes installed in the riser and downcomer
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Figure 4. Time series of the tomographic images obtained from eight
measurement planes of the ERT system (plane 1, plane 2, plane 3, and
plane 4 located in the downcomer and plane 5, plane 6, plane 7, and plane
8 located in the riser) following the air supply at Ugr = 3.264 × 10−2 m s−1
using a cross-shaped sparger with a static liquid height of 1.63 m (blue
colour indicates lower conductivity and red colour higher conductivity).
at a superficial gas velocity 1.087 × 10−2 m s−1 using the cross-
shaped sparger (Fig. 2). Results in this figure demonstrates that
the conductivity of the air–water mixture in the riser decreased
sharply after 50 s due to the increase in gas holdup in the riser
(Planes 5, 6, 7, and 8). The decrease in conductivity recorded in
the downcomer (Planes 1, 2, 3, and 4) slightly decreased after
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50 s. This corresponds to a slight increase in the gas holdup in
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the downcomer due to the escape of some gas bubbles from the
riser.42
The effects of superficial gas velocity in the riser on the riser
gas holdup is illustrated in Fig. 7 at different static liquid heights
using the cross-shaped sparger. As appears from this figure, the
gas holdup in the riser increased with increasing superficial gas
velocity in the riser. It was clear that a smaller number of bubbles
were formed at lower gas flow rate, which resulted in lower gas
holdup. The increase in gas flow rate resulted in the formation
of a larger number of bubbles, which in return led to higher gas
holdup. The same observation was reported previously by Yazdian
et al.,42 Liu et al.,43 Mohanty et al.30 and Han et al.12 Fig. 7 also
shows that the gas holdup in the riser increased with decrease in
the liquid static height in the bioreactor. The effect of liquid height
on gas holdup in the external recirculating airlift bioreactors
was investigated previously by different researchers.24 – 27,43
Apparently, with decreasing liquid height in the bioreactor, the
flow resistance in the upper connecting tube is increased. This
decreases the liquid superficial velocity, which contributes to the
higher gas holdup in the bioreactor.44 Results in the present
work show that the gas holdup values in the downcomer were
very low compared with the gas holdup in the riser at different
superficial gas velocities in the riser. The range of gas holdup in the
downcomer was 1.7% to 30% of that in the riser. This is because
most of the gas bubbles escaped from the top of the bioreactor
(riser and downcomer sides). Douek et al.45 reported gas holdup
values in the downcomer in the range 0 to 29% of the riser gas
holdup in an external recirculating airlift bioreactor.
The effect of the type of sparger used on gas holdup at different
superficial gas velocities with a constant liquid static height of
1.63 m in the bioreactor is shown in Fig. 8. Results in Fig. 8 illustrate
that the gas holdup was slightly higher when the circular sparger
was used over a cross-shaped sparger with the same diameter,
hole size, and number of holes at the different riser superficial
gas velocity tested. This could be due to the fact that the circular
sparger offers more resistance to the flow of liquid than a cross-
shaped sparger.6,46 It was shown by previous investigators that an
increased resistance in the flow path of the liquid contributes to a
lower liquid superficial velocity and thus a higher gas holdup in the
bioreactor.6,12,46 A cross-shaped sparger consists of six perforated
small diameter tubes (Fig. 1). These small diameter circular tubes
offer much more space and hence lower resistance for the water to
pass around them. On the other hand, the circular sparger consists
of a circular solid plate with lesser space between riser and sparger,
hence offering more resistance to the liquid passing through that
space.6,46
Using a cross-shaped sparger with a constant static liquid
height of 1.63 m in the bioreactor, Fig. 9 demonstrates that when
the packing was installed in the riser of an external loop airlift
bioreactor, the gas hold up was slightly increased at increasing
superficial gas velocity in the riser. This slightly increased gas
holdup was partially due to the resistance in the liquid flow path
caused by installation of the packing in the riser and partially due
to the decrease in the size of gas bubbles.29 Earlier, Meng et al.28
reported that the impacts of gas bubbles with packing material can
change the hydrodynamic parameters including the gas holdup.
Meng and his coworkers also found that when they used packing
in the riser of an external loop airlift bioreactor, the gas holdup
was slightly increased.
In order to improve the performance of the proposed double
packing bioreactor, the influence of installing an internal gas
distributor in the riser on the gas holdup (with no packing in the
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Figure 5. Vertical slice of the tomographic images and 3D tomograms of the air–water system in the riser and the downcomer of the bioreactor at
different riser superficial gas velocities using a cross-shaped sparger at constant static liquid height of 1.63 m in the bioreactor (blue colour indicates
lower conductivity and red colour higher conductivity).

Figure 6. Conductivity variations with time for plane 1, plane 2, plane 3,
plane 4 (located in the downcomer), plane 5, plane 6, plane 7, and plane 8
(located in the riser) of ERT system with static liquid height = 1.63 m due
to the injection of air at Ugr = 1.087 × 10−2 m s−1 using cross-shaped
sparger.
riser) was investigated (Fig. 10). As shown in this figure, the gas
holdup in the riser was increased when the perforated plate was
installed in an empty riser with no packing at different superficial
Figure 7. Effect of superficial gas velocity on the gas holdup in the riser at
different static liquid heights using cross-shaped sparger.
increase in the gas holdup was higher than that at lower Ugr .
Generally, the higher gas holdup is due to the existence of smaller
gas bubbles in the bioreactor when the internal gas distributor
was inserted in the riser. When the liquid flows through the
perforated plate, the turbulence intensity in the riser is enhanced;
this effectively forces bubble breakup. This leads to the decrease
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gas velocities using a cross-shaped sparger. At higher Ugr , the in bubble size and the increase in gas holdup. The installation

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Figure 8. Effect of the sparger configuration on the gas holdup in the riser
at a constant static liquid height of 1.63 m.
Figure 9. Effect of the installation of packing in the riser on the gas holdup
at a constant static liquid height of 1.63 m using a cross-shaped sparger
configuration.
of an internal gas distributor in the riser also results in extra
flow resistance, which decreases the liquid superficial velocity and
increases the gas holdup in the bioreactor. These observations
were reported earlier by Mohanty et al.30 who observed that gas
holdup was increased when a perforated plate was installed in the
riser of an external loop airlift bioreactor.
In the presence of the two rolls of packing in the riser, Fig. 11
shows the effect of installing the gas distributor on the gas holdup
in the riser (cross-shaped sparger used at constant static liquid
height of 1.63 m). It is clear from this figure that the gas holdup
in the riser was higher in the presence of the gas distributor
installed between the two beds of packing. Generally, the packing
offers more resistance in the flow path of the liquid, which in turn
decreases the liquid superficial velocity and ultimately increases
the gas holdup. Similar to Fig. 10, at higher Ugr , the increase in gas
holdup was higher than that at the lower range of Ugr . The gas
holdup increases due to the decrease in the size of the gas bubbles
passing through the two packed-bed sections of the reactor.28,29
Zhang et al.2 used an internal gas distributor in the riser of an
external loop airlift bioreactor. They observed that when the air
bubbles and the liquid passed through the internal gas distributor,
the size of the air bubbles was reduced. They also observed that
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the air bubbles were also redistributed after passing through the
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M Hamood-ur-Rehman, F Ein-Mozaffari, Y. Dahman
Figure 10. Effect of the gas distributor (perforated plate) on the gas holdup
in the riser at a static liquid height of 1.63 m using the cross-shaped sparger
with no packing.
Figure 11. Effect of the installation of a perforated plate between two beds
of packing in the riser (height of each packing = 0.234 m) on the riser gas
holdup at a constant static liquid height of 1.63 m using a cross-shaped
sparger.
internal gas distributor. The function of the perforated plate was
to break and redistribute the gas bubbles after exiting the lower
packing and before entering the upper packing, which resulted in
an increase in gas holdup.
CONCLUSION
In the present study, ERT was successfully utilized to analyze
the distribution of the gas phase in the liquid phase. Experimental
results demonstrated that the gas holdup in the riser increased with
the decrease in static liquid height in the bioreactor. Decreasing
the liquid height in the bioreactor increased the flow resistance in
the upper connecting tube. This decreased the liquid superficial
velocity. The decreased liquid superficial velocity contributed to
a higher gas holdup in the bioreactor. The ERT data revealed
that at a constant riser superficial gas velocity, the installation of
packing in the riser contributed to higher resistance in the flow
path of the liquid in the riser and smaller gas bubbles, which
resulted in higher gas holdup. The impact of the novel design
parameter (installation of an internal gas distributor between two
beds of packing) on the gas holdup was significant. In fact, the
advantages of the packed bed bioreactors and the external loop
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 887–896
Mixing in external loop recirculating airlift bioreactor with two rolls of packing
airlift bioreactors were combined in this design to enhance gas
holdup in this novel bioreactor. In this study, the range of gas
holdup in the downcomer was 1.7% to 30% of that in the riser.
Results above demonstrate potential to improve oxygen
concentration in airlift bioreactors with fiberglass packing at
higher superficial gas velocity. Installing a gas distributor that
ensures optimum distribution of gas bubbles further increased gas
holdup in the bioreactor. Higher gas holdup increased the oxygen
mass transfer rate by increasing the residence time and interfacial
mass transfer area. Through improving oxygen concentration in
addition to the advantages of the external recirculating airlift
bioreactors, higher conversion can be achieved through utilizing
higher biomass concentrations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial support of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through
the Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Network (ABIN), Natural
Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and
Ryerson University is gratefully acknowledged.
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