Mass Transfer Intensification in Fermentation Bioreactors
The current project that I am working on is about mass transfer intensification with application in fermentation bioreactors. I am using ANSYS Fluent and OpenFOAM for simulating a lab-scale reactor and model developments, accordingly. The project is a collaboration between fluid dynamics division and industrial biotechnology department where the measurements for are carried out.
The OpenFOAM line of model development deals with the physical phenomena that occur at the gas-liquid interface and the modeling difficulties relevant for this length scale. For example the video below shows the treatment of surface tension forces at the interface might lead to nonphysical velocities also known as wobbling interface or parasitic currents.
Below is an image of OpenFOAM simulations capturing the thickness of mass boundary layer for diffusion of a species.
The other parallel line of work with ANSYS Fluent is concentrated on simulating the lab-scale bioreactor in terms of mixing time, and mass transfer coefficient. A comprehensive model is formulated and implemented that includes the followings:
- Mixing time based on Coefficient of Variation (CoV)
- Volumetric mass transfer coefficient
- Sherwood number
- Bubble size distribution
The simulations are validated with measurements. The below image and video are examples of modeling results.
