Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering 24 (2001) 171±177

DOI 10.1007/s004490100248

A novel split-cylinder airlift reactor for fed-batch cultures

Effect of the liquid height on the hydrodynamic characteristics and the volumetric oxygen
transfer coefficient of the reactor

J. GalõÂndez-Mayer, O. SaÂnchez-Teja, E. Cristiani-Urbina, N. Ruiz-Ordaz

171
Abstract Conventional airlift reactors are not adequate to and volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cient, but such cor-
carry out variable volume processes since it is not possible relations do not have a suf®cient predictive potential for a
to achieve a proper liquid circulation in these reactors satisfactory reactor design.
until the liquid height is higher than that of the down- The overall gas hold-up values were not signi®cantly
comer. To carry out processes of variable volume, the use affected when the liquid height was lower than the
of a split-cylinder airlift reactor is proposed, in the interior downcomer height. However, the values decreased
of which two multi-perforated vertical baf¯es are installed abruptly when the reactor was operated with liquid heights
in order to provide several points of communication be- over the downcomer height, especially at high super®cial
tween the reactor riser and downcomer. This improves the gas velocities.
liquid circulation and mixing at any liquid volume.
In fed-batch cultures, it is important to know how List of symbols
liquid height affects the hydrodynamic characteristics and  overall gas hold-up
the volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cient since this im- UGR super®cial gas velocity based on riser
pacts on the kinetic behavior of any fermentation. Thus, in AD downcomer cross-sectional area
the present work, the effect of the liquid height on the AR riser cross-sectional area
mixing time, the overall gas hold-up, and the volumetric CL bulk concentration of dissolved oxygen at time t
oxygen transfer coef®cient of the proposed airlift reactor Cs saturated concentration of dissolved oxygen
were determined. DC column diameter
The mixing time was increased and the volumetric HC total height of the column
oxygen transfer coef®cient decreased due to the increase of HD downcomer height
the liquid height in the reactor in all the super®cial gas HDT draft tube height
velocities tested, which corresponded to a pseudohomog- HL unaerated liquid height
eneous ¯ow regime. The experimental values of the mixing HLG gas±liquid dispersion height
time and the mass-transfer coef®cient were properly de- kLa volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cient
scribed through correlations in which the UGR/HL ratio t time
was used as the independent variable. Thus, this variable tm mixing time
might be used to describe the hydrodynamic behavior and VL liquid volume
the oxygen transfer coef®cient of airlift reactors when such
reactors are used in processes where the liquid volume 1
changes with time. Introduction
However, these correlations are useful for the particular Gas±liquid contactors are frequently used in aerobic fer-
device and for the particular operating conditions at which mentation processes and have some advantages over the
they were obtained. These empirical correlations are useful mechanically agitated reactors. The main advantages are
to understand some factors that in¯uence the mixing time the ease of construction and maintenance, no mechanical
moving parts, low power input, and low shear stress
[4, 15].
Received: 11 December 2000 / Accepted: 23 May 2001
Published online: 26 September 2001 The volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cients of bubble
Ó Springer-Verlag 2001 columns are generally higher than those of airlift reactors;
however, under similar conditions, the mixing level of the
J. GalõÂndez-Mayer (&), O. SaÂnchez-Teja, E. Cristiani-Urbina airlift reactors is higher than that of the bubble columns
N. Ruiz-Ordaz [7, 18]. Due to this, several airlift reactors have been de-
Departamento de IngenierõÂa BioquõÂmica, signed and built in such a way that through the use of
Escuela Nacional de Ciencias BioloÂgicas,
del I.P.N. Prol. de Carpio y Plan de Ayala, different devices, such as an external loop, a draft tube, or
Col. Plutarco ElõÂas Calles, MeÂxico, D.F.C.P. 11340 MeÂxico vertical baf¯es, the cylindrical or rectangular columns are
divided into sections, which improves the liquid circula-
N.R.-O., J.G.-M. and E.C.-U. are fellow holders of a grant from the tion and the mixing in the reactor [4, 6, 7].
ComisioÂn de OperacioÂn y Fomento de Actividades AcadeÂmicas,
Instituto PoliteÂcnico Nacional, MeÂxico, D.F., MeÂxico. The authors In fed-batch cultures, it is necessary to gradually
gratefully acknowledge the ®nancial support provided by the National feed the reactor with culture medium, which causes a
Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT), MeÂxico. change in the operating volume. However, in a con-
 Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering 24 (2001)

ventional airlift reactor it is only possible to achieve a direction increases, the mixing time in the airlift reactor
proper liquid circulation when the liquid height is would improve.
higher than the downcomer height, so a conventional The split-cylinder airlift reactors are easily built since
airlift reactor is not adequate for carrying out fed-batch just a vertical baf¯e has to be inserted in the column [4];
processes. however, they are not adequate for variable volume pro-
Various modi®ed airlift reactors with appropriate liq- cesses.
uid circulation and mixing level have been proposed for To carry out fed-batch cultures, a split-cylinder airlift
use in variable volume processes. Among the most rele- reactor was built, provided with two multi-perforated
vant proposals are those of Hagino et al. [7], using a vertical baf¯es, in order to have multiple points of com-
bubble column with draft device comprising a series of munication between the riser and the downcomer, and to
coaxially disposed curved plates, Wu and Wu [17, 18], and ease the free circulation of liquid at any liquid height.
172
Tung et al. [16] using airlift reactors with one or two net The objective of this work was to determine experi-
draft tubes. mentally the effect of the liquid height on the hydrody-
Most gas±liquid contactors have a high geometric liq- namic characteristics and the oxygen transfer of the
uid height/column diameter ratio, HL/DC³5, resulting in a proposed reactor.
relatively small cross-sectional area of the column in
comparison with the liquid volume in the reactor. 2
Therefore, for the same volumetric air-¯ow rate, the Material and methods
super®cial gas velocity, based on the column cross-section,
will be higher in reactors with a high HL/DC ratio and a 2.1
lower liquid volume. Under these conditions, even at Description of the airlift reactor
moderate aeration rates, a heterogeneous ¯ow regime will The airlift bioreactor used was of the split-cylinder inter-
prevail due to the coalescence of the bubbles, which nal loop type, with a total volume of 5.25 L. It was built in
increases its diameter and its terminal rise velocity [9]. order to operate processes of variable volume. A schematic
This can cause a decrease in the oxygen transfer to the diagram of the reactor is shown in Fig. 1. The lid, base and
liquid phase [6]. column of the bioreactor are made of Pyrex glass. The
It is important to analyze the operational advantages of
using relatively high volumetric air-¯ow rates, while
keeping a bubbly or ``pseudohomogeneous'' ¯ow regime in
gas±liquid contactors with a low geometric ratio (HL/
DC<5). On the other hand, in a fed-batch culture it is
important to know how the liquid height affects the re-
actor hydrodynamic characteristics and the gas±liquid
mass-transfer coef®cient [8], since this can alter the kinetic
behavior of a fermentation process [1].
Russell et al. [14] determined the effect of the draft tube
height on the hydrodynamic characteristics of a concentric
tube airlift fermentor and found out that both the liquid
circulation and the mixing time increased with draft tube
height. The mixing time increase was probably due to the
lengthening of the circulation path as the height of the
draft tube increased. This would lengthen the distance that
an injected pulse would have to travel between the draft
tube end sections where the bulk of the turbulent disper-
sion would probably occur and consequently increases the
mixing time.
These authors reported that it is probable that the bulk
of the mixing process occurs in the end sections of the
draft tube where the turbulent dispersion is at a maximum
due to the change in the ¯ow direction.
When the liquid mixing is considered within an airlift
reactor, it is reasonable to expect that the bulk of liquid
dispersion occurs in the top and bottom sections of the
vessel, as it is here where the ¯ow experiences a violent
disturbance as it undergoes a 180° change in direction
[14].
In a conventional split-cylinder airlift reactor, the
greatest turbulence occurs at the extremities of the baf¯e Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the split-cylinder airlift reactor with
perforated baes. (1) Airlift bioreactor; (2) plate baf¯es with 200
that separates the riser and downcomer, i.e., at the points perforations of 5-mm diameter; (3) air sparger; (4) gas supply; (5) top
where the ¯ow changes direction. Thus, it could be pre- view of the cylindrical section of the airlift reactor; D ± downcomer;
sumed that if the number of points where the ¯ow changes R ± riser
J. GalõÂndez-Mayer et al.: Split-cylinder airlift reactor for fed-batch cultures
reactor column is cylindrical with a lower internal diam-
eter (DC) of 103 mm and a total height (HC) of 635 mm.
The top section is of the cylindrical-conical type. The
conical section forms a 45° angle with the main body of the
reactor, and the height and internal diameter of the cy-
lindrical section are 125 and 136 mm, respectively.
Two acrylic multi-perforated vertical baf¯es, 485-mm
high, 3-mm thick, and 80-mm wide, were inserted in
the column. The baf¯es were joined in their upper and
lower sections by 316 stainless steel screws, forming an
easily dismantled structure. Each baf¯e has 200 perfo-
rations of 5-mm diameter, regularly distributed along
the baf¯e, so the perforated area/baf¯e area ratio is
0.10. For comparison purposes, non-perforated baf¯es,
measuring the same as the perforated ones, were also
used.
Flat plate baf¯es were used in a cylindrical vessel due to
the ease of construction and maintenance of the reactor.
Also, the reactor was designed in such a way that it could
be assembled in a variety of con®gurations, so that the
reactor could work either as a bubble column, a split-
cylinder airlift reactor with the perforated baf¯es, or one
with non-perforated baf¯es.
The vertical baf¯es were arranged parallel to each other
at equal distances from the vertical symmetry plane of the
reactor. Thus, the reactor was divided into three vertical
parts. The central part was the riser. The two side parts
were the downcomers. The baf¯e edges and the column
body were so tightly joined that air and liquid could not
pass along their juncture.
For air aspersion, a porous glass diffuser (with a pore
size of 16±40 lm) of the same diameter as that of the
column was placed at the center of the reactor base. The
diffuser parts corresponding to the downcomer cross-
sectional area were sealed with silicon rubber to avoid air
entering this zone.
The column was joined to the lid and base by stainless
steel screws that connected segmented Nylamid ¯anges, so
that the glass lips of the column were fastened between the
lid or the base and the ¯ange. The internal surfaces of the
¯anges were grooved to accommodate sterilizable silicon
rubber O-rings.
The ¯uid system used in this work to determine the
hydrodynamic parameters (mixing time and overall gas
hold-up) as well as the volumetric oxygen transfer coef®-
cient in the airlift reactor was air±tap water, and all ex-
periments were performed at room temperature and
pressure.
The input air was controlled at 4.0 kg/cm2 through a
pressure-regulating valve and the gas ¯ow rate was mea-
sured with a rotameter. The super®cial gas velocity re-
ferred to the riser cross-sectional area (UGR), ranged up to
2.21 cm/s.
The cross-sectional areas of the riser (AR) and down-
comer (AD) were 0.0063 m2 and 0.00203 m2, respectively.
Thus, the AD/AR ratio was 0.322. Several liquid heights
were tested to determine their effect on the variables
previously mentioned.
The lid had several ports. The two central ones were
used to introduce a pH electrode in one and an oxygen
electrode in the other.
2.2
Airlift reactor hydrodynamics
2.2.1
Mixing time
The mixing time was determined through the dye and the
pH pulse techniques.
To determine the mixing time using the dye technique,
a pulse of 250 lL of methylene blue solution (1%) was
injected into the liquid surface of the riser. The time re-
quired to reach a homogeneous color in the reactor, de-
173
termined by visual observation, was measured; this was
supplemented by a video recording. This is a frequently
used technique for visualization work [4].
Prandit and Joshi [12] reported that the pulse technique
could be applied when the ratio of the tracer volume to the
total liquid was less than 1/50, while in our experiments
the ratio was about 1/4,000.
To determine the mixing time through the pH pulse
technique, a pH sensor was placed at a certain height
(50 mm above the reactor bottom), that was maintained
constant for all determinations. For each set of experi-
mental conditions, the pH was ®rst reduced to a value of
around 3.0 by adding a 6.0 N hydrochloric acid solution
(64 lL) at the top of the reactor. Once the pH value was
stabilized, a 250-lL pulse of sodium hydroxide (2.0 N) was
injected into the liquid surface of the riser, at time zero,
and the time required to stabilize the pH value was mea-
sured. The data acquisition was stopped once a constant
pH value was achieved. The mixing time was determined
as the time required for the variation of the pH value to be
within 5% of the ®nal equilibrium values.
In both methods, three repetitions were carried out for
each set of experimental conditions and, at the end of each
experiment, the reactor was emptied and washed.
Figure 2 shows the mixing time values obtained
through both methods, as a function of the super®cial gas
velocity, when a HL/DC ratio of 3.0 was used. The deviation
from one method to the other was less than 5%. Thus, the
dye technique was used as the routine one for the studies
that followed.
The mixing time determination was carried out using
different liquid volumes ranging from 1.0 to 4.25 L, which
corresponded to liquid height values from 120 to 510 mm
and HL/DC ratios from 1.16 to 4.95. The volumetric air-
¯ow rate changed in the range of 1.0±8.0 L/min and the
super®cial air velocities were estimated from these values
and the cross-sectional area of the riser.
2.2.2
Overall gas hold-up
The gas hold-up measurement used in this study was an
average or overall hold-up. The gas hold-up was measured
through the method of volume expansion. Before air was
sparged into the reactor, the liquid height (HL) was mea-
sured. When the system reached a new steady state, under
a given air-¯ow rate, the height of the gas±liquid level
(HLG) was measured again. The gas hold-up () was de-
termined using the following equa-
tion: ˆ …H LG H L †=…H LG †.
 Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering 24 (2001)

174

Fig. 3. Effect of the baf¯e type on the mixing time (open circle
perforated baf¯es; solid circle non-perforated baf¯es)
Fig. 2. Experimental data comparison of the mixing time as a
function of the super®cial gas velocity, when the dye and pH pulse
techniques were used (solid diamond pH; open triangle visual
observation; r2=0.9786) 3
Results and discussion

3.1
2.2.3 Mixing time
Volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient Initially, the effect of the baf¯e type (perforated and non-
The volumetric mass-transfer coef®cients (kLa) were de- perforated) on the mixing time was determined. For this
termined by using the transient gassing-in technique, purpose a liquid volume (VL=4.5 L) was used, large en-
valid when the reactor content is completely backmixed ough so that the liquid level (HL=540 mm) was above the
[3]. height of the baf¯es. Figure 3 shows the mixing time val-
The concentration of dissolved oxygen in the reactor ues with respect to the super®cial air velocity for both the
was measured using a dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor, with perforated and the non-perforated baf¯es installed in the
a response time of about 1.0 s. A dissolved oxygen meter,
reactor.
provided with a membrane covered polarographic sensor, Both mixing time curves decreased as the super®cial
was used. gas velocity was increased. When the reactor was operated
All experiments were performed with batch liquid and with the perforated baf¯es, the curve was lower than that
continuous gas ¯ow. At the beginning of each experiment,obtained when the reactor was operated with the non-
nitrogen was sparged to desorb the dissolved oxygen fromperforated baf¯es. This suggests that the perforations
the liquid phase, then a preadjusted air ¯ow was fed into
substantially improved the liquid mixing, which could be
the column. due to the increased number of points where turbulent
The mass balance in the reactor was expressed as: dispersion was at a maximum due to the change in the
…dCL =dt† ˆ kLa …Cs CL † ¯ow direction. Based on these results, the following studies
were carried out in the airlift reactor equipped with the
where Cs is the saturated concentration of dissolved perforated baf¯es.
oxygen and CL is the bulk concentration of dissolved The airlift reactor proposed in this study allowed
oxygen at time t. This equation is based on the fol- variation of the liquid height while keeping all other geo-
lowing assumptions: (a) the liquid phase is well mixed, metric properties and operation conditions constant.
and (b) the membrane resistance of the DO sensor is Thus, the effect of the liquid height on the mixing time
negligible. was determined later when low super®cial air velocities
J. GalõÂndez-Mayer et al.: Split-cylinder airlift reactor for fed-batch cultures

Russell et al. [14] also used a concentric tube airlift

Fig. 4. Effect of the liquid height on the mixing time for different
super®cial gas velocities
were used in the riser. Under these conditions, a pseudo-
homogeneous ¯ow regime prevailed, which is preferred
most of the time. For these studies, several liquid heights
were tested that were lower than the height of the baf¯es.
For all super®cial gas velocities tested the mixing time
rose signi®cantly with increasing liquid heights (Fig. 4).
For each super®cial gas velocity, the mixing time values
were ®tted to the following correlation: t m ˆ a…H L †b :
Table 1 shows the estimated values for the model con-
stants a and b, which corresponded to a pseudohomoge-
neous ¯ow regime, for each super®cial gas velocity tested.
In the literature, little information exists about the
effect of liquid height on mixing time in airlift reactors. In
one of the few published studies that considers the effect of
the vessel height on the airlift mixing behavior, Rousseau
and Bu'Lock [13] varied the ratio of the draft tube height
to the column diameter (HDT/DC) from 2.3:1 to 6.1:1 for a
concentric tube reactor and found that the mixing time
was proportional to the draft tube height to the power of
1.7 in the range of heights studied.
reactor and determined the effect of the draft tube height
on some of the hydrodynamic characteristics of the reac-
tor. They found that the relation between the mixing time
and the super®cial gas velocity was represented by the
equation: t m ˆ a…H L †b ; where the values of the constants a
and b depended on the super®cial gas velocity, which
agrees with the results obtained in this study. However, the
values of the constants differ from one study to the other,
which could be due to the different ¯ow behavior of the
airlift reactors used.
175
By processing all experimental data obtained in the
reactor, using non-linear regression, a correlation was
made between the mixing time and the ratio of the su-
per®cial gas velocity to the liquid height (UGR/HL), which
was as follows: t m ˆ 0:75…U GR =H L † 0:49 : The correlation
coef®cient was 0.907.
Figure 5 shows the logarithmic graph of the mixing
time as a function of the UGR/HL ratio. Although it is ob-
served that experimental data are a little scattered, the
results indicate that the general trend of the proposed
correlation is valid for the different operating UGR/HL
ratios tested.
From the results obtained it is evident that the UGR/HL
ratio is a useful independent parameter to correlate the
quantitative behavior of the mixing time in variable vol-
ume processes.
The mixing time values obtained in the proposed re-
actor are lower than those reported for a bubble column,
an airlift bioreactor which contains two separable con-
centric tubes with a mesh number of 3 [16], a split-channel

Table 1. Values for the constants a and b of the equation

t m ˆ a…H L †b , obtained for super®cial gas velocities which corre-
sponded to a pseudohomogeneous ¯ow regime

UGR a b R2
(cm/s)

0.265 21.715 0.871 0.924

0.530 13.219 0.732 0.988
0.790 12.890 0.811 0.993
1.060 9.609 0.678 0.938
1.320 9.710 0.731 0.938
1.560 8.847 0.707 0.950
1.580 8.198 0.742 0.969
2.210 6.317 0.614 0.906 Fig. 5. Comparison of experimental values of mixing time with
values obtained using the equation: t m ˆ 0:75…U GR =H L † 0:49
 Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering 24 (2001)
airlift reactor with different con®gurations of the head
region [5], a bubble column with a membrane sparger, a
bubble column with a membrane and a ring sparger, an
internal loop airlift reactor with a membrane sparger [11],
and for a concentric tube airlift bioreactor [14]. All of
them were compared for equivalent super®cial gas veloc-
ities. These results could be due to the different working
volumes and ¯ow behaviors of the airlift reactors used.
3.2
Overall gas hold-up ()
176
The overall gas hold-up was measured at different super-
®cial gas velocities and at liquid heights from 180 to
600 mm. The variation in overall gas hold-up with respect
to the liquid height is shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that at
all liquid heights tested, the overall gas hold-up increased
with increasing super®cial gas velocity.
In general, the overall gas hold-up values obtained in
the proposed reactor are very high if one takes into ac-
count the low values of the super®cial gas velocities that
were used.
These results suggest that the degree of turbulence
generated in the reactor when there are multiple points
where the ¯ow direction changes, causes the formation of
bubbles of a smaller diameter, which decreases the ter-
minal rise velocity of bubbles and increases its residence
time in the reactor as well as the overall gas hold-up.
In the range of super®cial gas velocities tested (0.26±
2.21 cm/s), little variation was observed in the overall gas
hold-up values with respect to the liquid height when the
liquid level in the reactor was lower than the downcomer
Fig. 6. Effect of the liquid height on the overall gas hold-up for
different super®cial gas velocities
height. These results agree with those reported by Russell
et al. [14], who found that the overall gas hold-up was not
affected signi®cantly by the draft tube height in a con-
centric tube airlift reactor. In contrast, Kawalec-Pietrenko
and Holowacs [8] found that the riser and the downcomer
gas hold-up values decreased with an increase of the re-
actor height.
However, the overall gas hold-up values obtained in
this study decreased signi®cantly when the liquid height in
the reactor was higher than that of the downcomer. This
decrease was lesser for the lowest super®cial gas velocities.
The gas hold-up values obtained in this work were
similar to those reported by Tung et al. [16] and Wu and
Wu [17], who used airlift reactors with net tubes, and
higher than those estimated for other reactor types, such
as in concentric tube airlift reactors [2,9,10,14] and in a
rectangular airlift reactor [8], for similar super®cial gas
velocities.
3.3
Overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient
Figure 7 shows the variation of the overall volumetric
oxygen transfer coef®cient in the reactor, as a function of
the super®cial air velocity for three liquid heights (120,
240, and 420 mm).
As expected, the overall mass-transfer coef®cient in-
creased with an increase of the super®cial gas velocity,
since an increase of the gas ¯ow rate causes an increase of
the gas hold-up and, consequently, of the interfacial area.
The volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cient decreased as
the liquid height in the reactor increased (Fig. 7). These
Fig. 7. Effect of the liquid height on the volumetric oxygen transfer
coef®cient for different super®cial gas velocities
J. GalõÂndez-Mayer et al.: Split-cylinder airlift reactor for fed-batch cultures

results agree with those reported by Kawalec-Pietrenko References

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The overall volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cients
were also correlated to the UGR/HL ratio. The best corre-
lation was the following: kL a ˆ 950…U GR =H L †0:35 .
Even though the correlation coef®cient of this equation
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4 column. US Patent 4,327,042
Conclusions
The hydrodynamic parameters and the oxygen transfer
coef®cient were determined for an airlift reactor of the
split-cylinder type with two multi-perforated baf¯es, de-
signed to carry out variable volume processes. The mixing
time, the overall gas hold-up, and the volumetric oxygen
transfer coef®cient were affected by the liquid height in the
reactor.
The experimental values of the mixing time and the
oxygen transfer coef®cient were properly described by
correlations, which used the UGR/HL ratio as an indepen-
dent variable. So, this variable can be used properly to
describe the hydrodynamic behavior and the mass-trans-
fer coef®cient of airlift reactors when they are operated
with different liquid levels, such as in fed-batch cultures.
However, these correlations are useful for this partic-
ular device and for the operating conditions at which they
were obtained. These empirical correlations are useful to
understand some factors that in¯uence the mixing time
and volumetric oxygen transfer coef®cient, but such cor-
relations do not have a suf®cient predictive potential for a
satisfactory reactor design.
The overall gas hold-up values were not signi®cantly
affected when the liquid height was lower than the
downcomer height. However, the values decreased
abruptly when liquid heights higher than that of the
downcomer, mainly at high super®cial gas velocities, were
used.
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