Application of computational fluid dynamics to predict overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of air-water system in non-standard dual rushton turbine stirred tank
Abstract:
The fermentation process is commonly found in the industry. This process generally uses a stirred tank reactor with oxygen continuously flow for feeding organism cells inside the fermenter. For Scaling-up, a fermenter is designed to well mix condition. Also, sufficient oxygen for the cells is important. The experiment shows that scaling-up fermenter with constant oxygen transfer rate is not achieved, the product has more impurity due to the oxygen transfer rate get worst. However, the fermenter configuration, impeller clearance and working fluid height, are changed, which may cause dissimilar hydrodynamics in the fermenter. This project aims to evaluate CFD simulation to predict the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of air-water system in non-standard dual Rushton turbine stirred tank reactor. Multiphase Eulerian model and k-epsilon turbulent model were used with population balance equation to illustrate gas-liquid hydrodynamics in the vessel. The model results are compared to the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient obtained from the experiment within 10% error. The model shows that an impeller clearance has no effect on the overall oxygen transfer coefficient if it develops the same liquid flow pattern and gas flow regime. The difference in height of working fluid does not affect the local volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient. Nevertheless, the level of impellers in the tank does not change with liquid height result in a large volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient in the lower zone compared to the upper impeller zone. The system with lower liquid heigh, especially near the impeller, tends to have a greater overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient. Moreover, Impellers draw less power when the liquid height is close to the upper impeller.