Nicolle Courtemanche

Aerobic bioprocesses are highly dependent upon the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) from sparged to dissolved gas. The relatively low solubility of oxygen, however, makes the choice of mixer impeller configuration a critical design factor for the bioreactor vessel. This article describes a series of experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to detail the effect of mixer configuration on the efficiency and effectiveness of a bioreactor vessel with respect to blend time and mass transfer.