J O U R N A L OF F E R M E N T A T I O N A N D B I O E N G I N E E R I N G

Vol. 70, No. 5, 359-361. 1990

Airlift Reactor with Net Draught Tube

W E N - T E N G WU* AND J I U M N - Y I H W U
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Received 11 May 1990/Accepted 17 August 1990

A modified airlift reactor with an internal loop has been developed. The draught tube of the reactor is a net
tube. The gas holdup and the volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient, kEa, were investigated. Four net
tubes with different mesh numbers were tested. The kta value of the proposed reactor with mesh sizes can double
that of the airlift reactor at some high superficial gas velocities.

Since a bubble column is an i m p o r t a n t device in bio- the volume expansion m e t h o d (12, 14, 15). In the present
technology, its performance has often been investigated (1- study, the latter was used because of its simplicity and high
4). A conventional bubble column does not contain an im- reliability in c o m p a r i s o n with that of the differential
peller. It is easier to m a n u f a c t u r e and sterilize. However, pressure method. Gas holdup was obtained by the follow-
in fermentation operations it is not as flexible as a mixing ing equation.
tank reactor, because it has both gas-liquid mass transfer
Vf- VI hf hi
and liquid circulation limitations. M a n y investigators (5-7) e= = (1)
have used bubble columns containing packings o f various Vf hf
shapes and sizes. Modified bubble columns, such as airlift where V~ is the unaerated liquid volume; Vf is the aerated
reactors, have also been investigated (8-11). There are two liquid volume; hi is the unaerated liquid height, and hf is
principal types o f airlift r e a c t o r s - - o n e with an internal the aerated liquid height.
loop, the other with an external loop (8, 10). Both types im- The principal operating influence on gas h o l d u p is super-
prove liquid mixing capacity, which prevents cell sedimen- ficial gas velocity. Gas h o l d u p increases as the superficial
tation. gas velocity increases. The experimental results are shown
In the present study, modification of an airlift reactor is in Fig. 2. The values o f gas h o l d u p of the p r o p o s e d reactor
proposed. The draught tube o f the reactor is a net tube. were located between those o f the bubble column and the
F o u r net tubes with different mesh numbers were tested. airlift reactor. The gas h o l d u p o f the p r o p o s e d reactor with
W h e n the net tube was changed to a solid tube, the reactor mesh-3 daught tube was almost the same as the bubble col-
could be considered to be a conventional airlift reactor. umn. As the mesh number increased, the gas h o l d u p ap-
On the other hand, when the net tube was absent, the reac- proached that o f the conventional airlift reactor.
tor was identical to a bubble column. Hence, a bubble col- The m e t h o d for determining kLa was based on the trans-
u m n and a conventional internal airlift reactor can be con- ient gassing-in one (8, 14-19). The concentration o f dis-
sidered as limiting cases for the p r o p o s e d reactor. solved oxygen in the reactor was measured using a DO sen-
A schematic d i a g r a m o f the experimental equipment is sor.
shown in Fig. 1. The reactor (13 cm in diameter and 1.80 m
high) cotains a concentric draught tube (6 cm in diameter
and 1 m high). Five different draught tubes were tested.
One was solid; the other four tubes were net tubes with
mesh numbers 3, 6, 12, and 24. The working volume o f the
liquid in the reactor was 15 1. A sparger at the b o t t o m of
the draught tube was a porous plate with a pore size o f 40 to
50/am. The b o t t o m clearance o f the draught tube was
5.5 cm. The dissolved oxygen sensor was polargraphic
Signal
(Ingold). The location o f the sensor was at a position 30 cm Conditioner
from the reactor b o t t o m . The superficial gas velocity was
in the range of zero to 5.02 c m / s . The temperature of the
reactor was held at 30°C. The reactor was coupled with a [~ HP 3478A
c o m p u t e r d a t a acquisition system. The computer, an IBM-
HP 5497A
I
P C / X T with an IEEE-488 bus, was interfaced with an j_ _
A / D ~ D/A
H P - 3 4 5 6 A digital voltmeter and a H P - 3 4 9 7 A d a t a acquisi-
tion unit (Hewlett-Packard).
Estimations o f gas h o l d u p and the volumetric gas-liquid
mass transfer coefficient were carried out using the air-
water system.
Two measurement methods for gas holdup are frequently Air
VF -1
u s e d - - t h e differential pressure m e t h o d (8, 12, 13) and XT

* Corresponding author. FIG. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental equipment.

359
360 WU AND WU J. FERMENT.BIOENG.,

0.200 150

x~
&.
0.100- 120
t
&
x* *
O. 9O ®
'qO
0¢-
I!1 +
o
(_9 _,g
60

m~
l [] rn 0
[]x 30 e ÷e +
+ +

0,010 + • •

0.0061 i I I I I I t ] I I I I 0 i I I I I
0.2 1.0 6.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 5.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
Superficial gas velocity, Ug (cm/s) Superficial gas velocity, Ug (cm/s)
FIG. 2. Gas holdup with respect to superficial gas velocity. FIG. 4. kLa with respect to superficial gas velocity. Symbols are
Symbols: ~,
~' bubble column; × , mesh-3; <b, mesh-6; T, mesh-12; the same as in Fig. 2.
+, mesh24; A, airlift reactor.

Mass balance is written as

100 d c t = kLa (ce-- ct) (2)

@ dt
X where Ce is the saturated concentration of dissolved oxy-
@
X
gen; and q is the bulk concentration of dissolved oxygen at
x
tiem t. Equation 2 is based on the following assumptions;
8O (a) the liquid phase is well mixed, and (b) the m e m b r a n e re-
x sistance of the DO sensor is negligible. Integration of Eq. 2
from Co to ct, where Co is the initial concentration of dis-
x
solved oxygen, and defining a dimensionless dissolved oxy-
gen concentration, ~t, as
6O
ct- q - c o (3)
c~-co
4~
gives

4O In(l-q)= kLat (4)

x ~
W After plotting the curve of In (1 - c t ) with respect to t, the
mas transfer coefficient kLa can be obtained from the slope
i
A
of linear regression of the curve. The experimental results
for different reactors are shown in Fig. 3 and 4. The kLa
A
2O A value was proportional to the superficial gas velocity. At
A
the same superficial gas velocity, the airlift reactor's kLa
was lower than that of the bubble column or proposed reac-
tor. The kLa values of the proposed reactor were not
always located between those of the bubble column and
0 I I I I I
the airlift reactor. For the draught tube with a large mesh
0.0 2.0 1.0:5.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
n u m b e r (Fig. 4), the performance of the proposed reactor
Superficial gas velocity, Ug (cm/s) was similar to that of the airlift reactor, as long as the
FIG. 3. kLa with respect to superficial gas velocity. Symbols are superficial gas velocity was low. However, when the super-
the same as in Fig. 2. ficial gas velocity was high, the kLa of the proposed reactor
VoL 70, 1990
f a r s u r p a s s e d t h a t o f t h e b u b b l e c o l u m n a n d airlift r e a c t o r .
T h e r e a s o n is t h a t t h e gas in t h e d r a u g h t t u b e c a n b r e a k
through the net tube. Hence, a large number of small bub-
bles a c c u m u l a t e d in t h e d o w n c o m e r o f t h e r e a c t o r .
In conclusion, an airlift reactor with a net draught tube
h a s b e e n i n t r o d u c e d . S t r u c t u r a l l y , t h e p r o p o s e d r e a c t o r is
a general one consisting of a bubble column and a conven-
tional internal airlift reactor. However, the experiment
s h o w e d t h a t as l o n g as t h e superficial gas v e l o c i t y exceeds
a b o u t 2 c m / s , t h e p r o p o s e d r e a c t o r ' s kLa is a l w a y s h i g h e r
t h a n t h a t o f t h e b u b b l e c o l u m n or a i r l i f t r e a c t o r . A t t h e
superficial gas v e l o c i t y o f 5.02 c m / s , t h e kla v a l u e o f t h e
p r o p o s e d r e a c t o r w i t h m e s h - 2 4 d r a u g h t t u b e was d o u b l e
t h a t o f t h e airlift r e a c t o r .
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NOTES 361
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