Aeration costs in stirred-tank and bubble column bioreactors

Humbird, David; Davis, Ryan; McMillan, James D.

doi:10.1016/j.bej.2017.08.006

Cited by 79 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…TEA screening indicated that all four pathways exhibited the technical potential to achieve $3/GGE MFSPs, albeit all would require substantial assistance from lignin coproducts (consistent with prior findings noted above), but significantly more so for the aerobic cases relative to anaerobic (Figure 1, where the bottom negative bar represents the coproduct revenues required from lignin inclusive of lignin coproduct processing costs). This was due to inherently lower energy (GGE) yields and higher processing costs for aerobic bioconversion compared to anaerobic, with the latter tied to the costs of delivering and solubilizing oxygen to an aerobic bioreactor [13].…”

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As introduced in Section 1.1, compared to anaerobic fermentation, aerobic bioconversion is constrained by higher costs for oxygen delivery, both for the equipment to compress and sparge air into the bioreactor media, as well as associated power demands for compression and cooling demands for removing more evolved heat [13]. However, more significant factors are the economy-of-scale penalties for significantly smaller bioreactor volumes (500-1,000 m 3 as required for maintaining uniform concentrations of dissolved oxygen and more stringent control of fed-batch fermentations), compared to anaerobic batch bioreactors on the order of 1 MM gal (roughly 4,000 m 3 ) [54,55].…”

Section: Design Basis Anaerobic Fermentation: Background Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compared to stirred tank reactors that use motor speed to achieve sufficient mixing and control the sparge rate to achieve sufficient gas transfer, bubble columns only provide a single control, the gas sparge rate, to achieve both mixing and mass transfer. Despite this drawback in flexibility, at larger volumes bubble columns provide more cost-efficient oxygen delivery as well as reduced shear on the organism due to absence of mechanical components [13]. Additionally, the simpler mechanical design aids in aseptic operation.…”

Section: Figure 14 Aerobic Bubble Column Bioreactor Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels and Coproducts: 2018 Biochemical Design Case Update; Biochemical Deconstruction and Conversion of Biomass to Fuels and Products via Integrated Biorefinery Pathways

et al. 2018

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Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Design Basis Anaerobic Fermentation: Background Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 14 Aerobic Bubble Column Bioreactor Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels and Coproducts: 2018 Biochemical Design Case Update; Biochemical Deconstruction and Conversion of Biomass to Fuels and Products via Integrated Biorefinery Pathways

et al. 2018

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“…The operation of bioreactors is complex since sterility is required and, to achieve high oxygen transfer rates, high agitation and aeration rates are needed. High power demand is needed for the function of the agitator and the air compressor [43]. For larger reactors, larger agitators and moving parts are required and that is translated to higher power per unit volume required to achieve the desired oxygenation levels.…”

Section: Bioreactor Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Techno-Economic Modelling to Determine the Minimum Cost Possible for a Microbial Palm Oil Substitute

Karamerou

Parsons

McManus

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Palm oil is the most commonly used crop oil worldwide, and is used predominantly for food, in the chemical industry and for biofuels. It is mainly cultivated in areas with biodiverse and carbon-rich rainforest which has given rise to large increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and significant impacts to biodiversity. There is therefore substantial interest in finding an alternative to palm oil. Heterotrophic single cell oils (SCOs) are one potential replacement as these are able to mimic the lipid profile of palm oil in a way that other terrestrial and exotic crop oils cannot. But, despite a large experimental research effort in this area, there are only a handful of techno-economic modelling publications. As such, there is little understanding of whether SCOs are, or could ever be, a potential competitive replacement to palm oil. To help address this question we designed a detailed model that coupled a hypothetical heterotroph (using the very best possible biological lipid production) with the largest and most efficient chemical plant design possible. Results Our base case gave a lipid selling price of $2.01 / kg for ~8,000 tonnes / year production, that could be reduced to $1.54 /kg on increasing production to ~48,000 tonnes of lipid a year. A range of scenarios to further reduce this cost were then assessed, including using a thermotolerant strain (reducing the cost from $1.54 /kg to $1.47 /kg), zero cost electricity ($ 1.48/kg), using non-sterile conditions ($1.05 / kg), wet extraction of lipids ($1.48 / kg), continuous production of extracellular lipid ($0.76 /kg) and selling the whole yeast cell, including recovering value for the protein and carbohydrate ($1.14 /kg). If co-products were produced alongside the lipid then the price could be effectively reduced to $0, depending on the amount of carbon funnelled away from lipid production, as long as the co-product could be sold in excess of $1/kg. Conclusions The model presented here represents an ideal case that which while not achievable in reality, importantly would not be able to be improved on, irrespective of the scientific advances in this area. From the scenarios explored, however, it should still be possible to produce lower cost SCOs, but research must start to be applied in three key areas, firstly designing products where the whole cell is used, displacing products that contain palm oil rather than attempting to produce an exact refined palm oil substitute. Secondly, further work on the product systems that produce lipids extracellularly in a continuous processing methodology or finally that create an effective biorefinery designed to produce a low molecular weight, bulk chemical, alongside the lipid. All other research areas will only ever give incremental gains rather than leading towards an economically competitive, sustainable, microbial oil.

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“…Gas–liquid multiphase reactors, which are used to improve mass transfer, are commonly used in the form of stirred reactors, bubble columns, falling film reactors, jet flow, and airlift reactors . Taylor–Couette vortex bioreactors are prime examples of reactors that use inner wall rotation to generating the pairs of toroidal vortices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas–liquid mass transfer and bubble size distribution in a multi‐Cyclone separator

Qian

et al. 2018

AIChE Journal

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This article discusses the use of a multi-cyclone separator, which is a simplified form of a degassing hydrocyclone, in the separation of sweeping nitrogen bubbles and dissolved oxygen from water. The motion of the nitrogen bubbles and mass transfer of dissolved oxygen is discussed. It was observed that the Sauter mean diameter and gas volume in the swirling flow region as well as the total gas holdup increased as the volumetric ratio of gas to liquid flow increased. Almost all bubbles were found to exit through the gas outlet, indicating optimum performance of the bubble-separation process. The multi-cyclone separator was found to achieve good performance for the mass transfer of oxygen from water to nitrogen. This work is important in predicting the destination of bubbles and dissolved gas in swirling flow.

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Aeration costs in stirred-tank and bubble column bioreactors

Cited by 79 publications

References 8 publications

Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels and Coproducts: 2018 Biochemical Design Case Update; Biochemical Deconstruction and Conversion of Biomass to Fuels and Products via Integrated Biorefinery Pathways

Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels and Coproducts: 2018 Biochemical Design Case Update; Biochemical Deconstruction and Conversion of Biomass to Fuels and Products via Integrated Biorefinery Pathways

Using Techno-Economic Modelling to Determine the Minimum Cost Possible for a Microbial Palm Oil Substitute

Gas–liquid mass transfer and bubble size distribution in a multi‐Cyclone separator

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