Computational Model for Microbubble Enhanced Performance of Airlift Bioreactor (ALB)

Abstract

This paper presents a computational model for microbubble enhanced performance of an airlift bioreactor (ALB). Five different bubble diameters were defined in the model under the same conditions (440 µm to 1 mm bubble diameter). The computational model parameters and the size of the ALB were defined by referring to experimental work done previously. The main objective of the model is to study the effect of bubble size on the rising velocity and the liquid flow velocity in the airlift reactor (ALB). The results obtained from the computational model shows that microbubbles have a better performance over larger bubbles because microbubbles have better gas hold up due to slow rise velocity and are able to increase the flow velocity due to their high surface area to volume ratio.