Power Requirements for Mixing

in a bioreactor
Manam Walait
FLS, UCP Lahore
• Usually, electrical power is used to drive impellers in stirred tanks.
• For a given stirred speed, the power required depends on the resistance offered by the fluid to
rotation of the impeller.

• per unit volume for industrial bioreactors

10 kW m − 3 for small vessels (approx. 0.1m3)
1~2 kW m − 3 for large vessels. (approx. 100m3)
Usually the power requirement for agitation in large vessel is lower than that is small vessel this is due
to the effect of higher pressure and the increase pressure from liquid column
This will facilitate oxygen mass transfer.in order to achieve high volumetric power input in small
bioreactor the agitation speed has to be very high which result in high share rate in smaller vessel.
Accordingly fermentation broth has various flow behavior. For example the viscosity of non Newtonian
broth is dependent on the share rate and difference in share rate across scales will led to differences in
viscosity this in turn affect kla and explained why the mass transfer of filamentous broth in limited in
large scale.
 therefore, the electrical
power consumed by
Friction in the stirrer
stirrer motors is always
motor gearbox and seals
greater than the mixing
reduces the energy
power by an amount
transmitted to the fluid;
depending on the
efficiency of the drive.
Energy costs for
operation of stirrers in
bioreactors are an
important consideration
in process economics.
 Mixing power for non-
aerated fluids depends
on the
Ungased
stirrer speed, the
Newtonian impeller diameter and
Fluids geometry, and

properties of the fluid

such as density and
viscosity.
Un-gased
Non- • For non-Newtonian fluid power
estimation is more difficult. Viscosity of
Newtonian such fluid varies with shear condition.

Fluids
 Apparently when gas sparged in
a liquid, the hydrodynamics of
liquid around the impeller
immediately changes. This
reduce power requirement of
Gassed mixing when density of fluid
decreases.
Fluids
The power consumption could be
reduced to as little as 50% of un-
gassed value which depend on
flow rate of the gas