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Modeling of batch phenol biodegradation in internal loop airlift bioreactor
with gas recirculation by Candida tropicalis
Xiaoqiang Jia, Jianping Wen
gr
=
U
gr
V
gr
, (3)
gd
=
U
gd
V
gd
, (4)
where
gr
and
gd
are the gas holdups in the riser and the
downcomer, respectively.
Similarly, the relationships among the linear liquid velocities,
supercial liquid velocities and liquid holdups in the riser and
the downcomer are
lr
=
U
lr
V
lr
, (5)
ld
=
U
ld
V
ld
, (6)
where V
lr
and V
ld
are the linear liquid velocities in the riser
and the downcomer,
lr
and
ld
the liquid holdups in the riser
and the downcomer, respectively. Also
lr
= 1
gr
, (7)
ld
= 1
gd
. (8)
The liquid volumetric ow rate through the riser is equal to
that through the downcomer:
U
lr
A
r
= U
ld
A
d
, (9)
where A
r
and A
d
are the cross-sectional areas of the riser and
the downcomer, respectively.
Similarly, a gas-phase volume balance at the riser bottom
depicts that the riser gas volumetric ow rate equates the sum
of the downcomer gas volumetric ow rate and the injection
gas volumetric ow rate, Q
g
:
U
gr
A
r
= U
gd
A
d
+ Q
g
. (10)
Lu and Hwang (1995) found that a linear relationship be-
tween the gas holdups in the riser and the downcomer exists
for gasliquid two-phase ILAB. As the ratio of cross-sectional
X. Jia et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 34633475 3465
area of the downcomer to the riser of their ILAB is the same
as in this study, Eq. (11) is therefore used in this study for
gasliquid two-phase system:
gd
= 0.8
gr
. (11)
Liquid recirculation in the ILAB is caused by the hydrostatic
pressure difference, P
h
, between the riser and the downcomer
and can be written as (Miyahara and Kawate, 1993):
P
h
= [(
ld
ld
+
g
gd
) (
lr
lr
+
g
gr
)]gH
d
, (12)
where H
d
is the draught tube height.
Moreover, the total frictional loss in the ILAB, P
loss
, can
be calculated as the sum of the frictional losses in the four
sections of the ILAB (Vunjak-Novakovic et al., 1992):
P
loss
= (P
f
)
r
+ (P
f
)
d
+ (P
f
)
t
+ (P
f
)
b
,
(13)
where (P
f
)
r
and (P
f
)
d
are the frictional losses in the
riser and the downcomer, respectively, and they are obtained
by (Verlaan et al., 1986):
(P
f
)
r
=
1
2
lr
k
f r
V
2
lr
, (14)
(P
f
)
d
=
1
2
ld
k
f d
V
2
ld
, (15)
where k
f r
and k
f d
are the frictional loss coefcients in the riser
and the downcomer, respectively.
(P
f
)
t
and (P
f
)
b
are the frictional losses due to ow
reversal at the top and the bottom sections of the ILAB, respec-
tively. They can be obtained by (Livingston and Zhang, 1993)
(P
f
)
t
=
1
2
lt
k
f t
V
2
lr
, (16)
(P
f
)
b
=
1
2
lb
k
f b
V
2
ld
, (17)
where k
f t
and k
f b
are the frictional loss coefcients in the top
and the bottom sections, respectively.
At steady state P
h
=P
loss
(Verlaan et al., 1986), namely:
[(
ld
ld
+
g
gd
) (
lr
lr
+
g
gr
)]gH
d
=
1
2
U
2
ld
(
lt
k
f t
+
lr
k
f r
)
(1
gr
)
2
A
d
A
r
2
+
(
lb
k
f b
+
ld
k
f d
)
(1
gd
)
2
. (18)
2.2. Mass balance model
The mass balance equation for phenol in the riser of the
ILAB is expressed by one-dimensional axial dispersion model:
jS
r
jt
= D
zr
j
2
S
r
jz
2
V
lr
jS
r
jz
S
r
, (19)
while for cells, we have
jX
r
jt
= D
zr
j
2
X
r
jz
2
V
lr
jX
r
jz
+
X
r
. (20)
The mass balance equation for phenol in the downcomer is
jS
d
jt
= D
zd
j
2
S
d
jz
2
+ V
ld
jS
d
jz
S
d
, (21)
while for cells, we have
jX
d
jt
= D
zd
j
2
X
d
jz
2
+ V
ld
jX
d
jz
+
X
d
, (22)
where D
zr
and D
zd
are the respective axial dispersion coef-
cient in the riser and the downcomer, which species the extent
of axial mixing,
S
r
and
S
d
the respective phenol degradation
rate in the riser and the downcomer,
X
r
and
X
d
the cell growth
rate in the riser and the downcomer. Since the direction of ow
in the downcomer is opposite to that in the riser, V
ld
is positive.
Note that the unit of time is in hour.
The mass balance equation for phenol in the top section is
jS
t
jt
=
U
lr
A
r
(S
r
|
z=H
d
S
t
)
v
t
lt
S
t
, (23)
while for cells, we have
jX
t
jt
=
U
lr
A
r
(X
r
|
z=H
d
X
t
)
v
t
lt
+
X
t
. (24)
The mass balance equation for phenol in the bottom section
is
jS
b
jt
=
U
ld
A
d
(S
d
|
z=0
S
b
)
v
b
lb
S
b
, (25)
while for cells, we have
jX
b
jt
=
U
ld
A
d
(X
d
|
z=0
X
b
)
v
b
lb
+
X
b
, (26)
where v
t
and v
b
are the respective volume of the top section
and the bottom section,
S
t
and
S
b
the respective phenol degra-
dation rate in the top section and the bottom section,
X
t
and
X
b
the respective cell growth rate in the top section and the
bottom section.
lt
and
lb
are the respective liquid holdup in
the top section and the bottom section, which are considered to
be the same as the overall liquid holdup of the whole reactor
and calculated as (Chisti, 1989):
lt
=
lb
=
l
= 1
g
= 1
gr
A
r
+
gd
A
d
A
r
+ A
d
. (27)
The initial conditions are
S
r
|
z=z
= S
0
r
, (28)
S
d
|
z=z
= S
0
d
, (29)
S
t
= S
0
t
, (30)
S
b
= S
0
b
, (31)
X
r
|
z=z
= X
0
r
, (32)
X
d
|
z=z
= X
0
d
, (33)
3466 X. Jia et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 34633475
X
t
= X
0
t
, (34)
X
b
= X
0
b
. (35)
The boundary conditions are
S
r
|
t
z=0
= S
b
|
t
, (36)
jS
r
jz
t
z=H
d
= 0, (37)
S
d
|
t
z=H
d
= S
t
|
t
, (38)
jS
d
jz
t
z=0
= 0, (39)
X
r
|
t
z=0
= X
b
|
t
, (40)
jX
r
jz
t
z=H
d
= 0, (41)
X
d
|
t
z=H
d
= X
t
|
t
, (42)
jX
d
jz
t
z=0
= 0. (43)
2.3. Model parameters
2.3.1. Distribution parameter c
i
The distribution parameter, c
i
, ranges between 1.02 and 1.17
(Zuber and Findlay, 1965). Since the ow pattern in our system
is similar to that in the internal loop airlift system of Hatch
(1973), the value of c
i
(=c
r
= c
d
) used in this study is 1.065.
2.3.2. Bubble terminal velocity U
bt ,i
The bubble terminal velocity, U
bt ,i
, is calculated using the
equation proposed by Wilkinson (1981) for non-coalescent sys-
tem:
U
bt ,i
l,m
l,m
= 2.25
3
l,m
l,m
g
4
l,m
0.273
l,m
0.03
. (44)
For coalescent system, the bubble terminal velocity is given
by (Hwang and Cheng, 1997)
U
bt ,i
= 1.0(gd
bi
)
0.5
, (45)
where the bubble diameter, d
bi
, for coalescent system is calcu-
lated as (Bhavaraju et al., 1978)
d
bi
= 0.7
0.6
li
P
gi
v
li
0.4
0.2
li
li
, (46)
where (P
gi
/v
li
) is the specic power input obtained by the
following equation (Chisti, 1989):
P
gi
v
li
=
li
gU
gr
1 + (A
d
/A
r
)
. (47)
The liquid phase density,
li
, viscosity,
li
, and surface ten-
sion,
li
, in the riser and the downcomer are related to the resid-
ual phenol and cell concentrations. Under the condition that the
initial phenol concentration varied from 100 to 2000 mg/L and
the initial cell concentration varied from 10 to 100 mg/L, the
following expressions can be obtained (Cao and Wen, 2005):
li
l,m
= 1 + 1 10
6
S
i
[S]
4 10
6
X
i
[X]
(R
2
= 0.972), (48)
li
l,m
= 1 4 10
5
S
i
[S]
9 10
9
S
i
[S]
2
+ 1 10
3
X
i
[X]
8 10
7
X
i
[X]
2
(R
2
= 0.963), (49)
li
l,m
= 1 1 10
5
S
i
[S]
1 10
8
S
i
[S]
2
+ 5 10
12
S
i
[S]
3
1.2 10
3
X
i
[X]
+ 5 10
5
X
i
[X]
2
8 10
8
X
i
[X]
3
(R
2
= 0.971), (50)
where
l,m
,
l,m
and
l,m
are the liquid density, liquid viscos-
ity and liquid surface tension of the mineral salt medium and
were measured initially experimentally; S
i
and X
i
are the con-
centrations of phenol and cells respectively, in the riser and the
downcomer, [S] and [X] are the unit concentrations of phenol
and cells, respectively.
2.3.3. Frictional loss coefcients, k
f r
and k
f d
, in the riser
and the downcomer
The frictional loss coefcients, k
f r
and k
f d
, are calculated
using the following equations:
k
f r
= 4f
r
H
d
D
r
, (51)
k
f d
= 4f
d
H
d
D
d
, (52)
where D
r
and D
d
are the respective diameter of the riser and
the downcomer, f
r
and f
d
the frictional factors of the liquid
phase in the riser and the downcomer, respectively, and they
are estimated from the Blasius equation:
f
r
= 0.0791 Re
0.25
lr
, (53)
f
d
= 0.0791 Re
0.25
ld
, (54)
where Reynolds numbers of the liquid phase in the riser and
the downcomer are
Re
lr
=
lr
V
lr
D
r
lr
, (55)
Re
ld
=
ld
V
ld
D
d
ld
. (56)
X. Jia et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 34633475 3467
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram describing the modeling of uid dynamics and mass balance.
3468 X. Jia et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 34633475
2.3.4. Frictional loss coefcients, k
f t
and k
f b
, in the top
section and the bottom section
The method developed by Chisti et al. (1988) is used in this
study to estimate k
f t
and k
f b
. They observed that k
f t
k
f b
for the ILAB, thus k
f t
is negligible. The correlation for k
f b
is
k
f b
= 11.402((A
d
/A
b
))
0.789
. (57)
This correlation is valid for an (A
d
/A
b
) range of 0.21.8.
A
b
is the free area below the draught tube.
2.3.5. Axial dispersion coefcients
Axial dispersion coefcients can be derived from empirical
correlations. In this study, the correlation proposed by Znad
et al. (2004) for ILAB is adopted:
D
zr
= 2.61D
1.5
r
U
0.5
gr
, (58)
D
zd
= 2.61D
1.5
d
U
0.5
gd
. (59)
Thus both the axial dispersion coefcients in the riser and the
downcomer increase with an increase in gas volumetric ow
rate.
2.3.6. Intrinsic kinetic parameters
The intrinsic cell growth and phenol biodegradation kinetics
of the yeast C. tropicalis were determined experimentally in
shaking asks (Jiang et al., 2005):
X
=
X
X =
dX
dt
=
max
S
K
s
+ S + S
2
/K
i
X
=
0.48S
11.7 + S + (S
2
/207.9)
X (R
2
= 0.996), (60)
S
=
S
X =
dS
dt
=
X
+ X
= 0.823
X
+ 0.277X (R
2
= 0.994). (61)
2.4. Model solution
The proposed model for simulating the dynamic behaviors
of batch phenol biodegradation processes was solved by the
coupling arithmetic. The uid dynamic model was solved us-
ing the Mathematica Software v5.0 with a relative tolerance
(RT) of 1 10
2
for the calculating of the linear liquid veloc-
ity in the dowmcomer, V
ld
, and the mass balance model was
solved by the nite element analysis method using the soft-
ware package of Femlab 3.0 a with a time step length (TSL) of
0.01 h and a RT of 1 10
2
for the calculation of each phenol
and cell concentration in the four sections of the ILAB. Fig. 1
is the schematic diagram describing the modeling of the mass
balance and uid dynamics. A typical solver ran 34 h of com-
puting time took about 10 h of wall clock time for the evalu-
ation of this proposed model, as most time was spent on the
coupling of the uid dynamics and the mass balance. In the
absence of the initial biomass and phenol concentrations, this
model for predicting the hydrodynamic characteristics of the
gasliquid two-phase ILAB without bioreaction was solved us-
ing the Mathematica Software v5.0 with a RT of 1 10
2
for
the calculation of the linear liquid velocity in the dowmcomer,
V
ld
. A typical solver took less than 2 s of wall clock time for
evaluation of the uid dynamics only.
3. Experimental procedure
3.1. Bioreactor
The ILAB was constructed of 0.12 m ID Plexiglas column
1.5 min height. The draft tube was 0.8 min height and was xed
0.1 m above the bottom of the bioreactor. The inside diameter of
the draft tube was 0.08 m(wall thickness 0.001 m). The distance
between the liquid surface free of air and the upper end of the
draft tube was 0.10 m. The diameter of the concentric jet nozzle
was 0.0054 m, and located at 0.075 m above the bottom of the
bioreactor. The gas volumetric ow rate was controlled by a
rotameter, and was varied from 0.3 10
3
1.6 10
3
m
3
/s,
corresponding to linear liquid velocity larger than the bubble
terminal velocity, which ensures the ILAB to be operated under
the gas recirculation ow regime (van Benthum et al., 1999).
Sterilized air was provided by passing air through an air lter
column, and there was an additional air lter above the top
of the bioreactor to prevent other bacterial contamination as
shown in Fig. 2.
3.2. Hydrodynamic characteristics investigations
In order to eliminate the disturbance of fermentation broth
on the measuring electrodes and to enhance the measurement
veracity, the mineral salt medium-air system without bioreac-
tion was used for measuring the hydrodynamic characteristics.
The liquid mineral salt medium contained (g/L): 0.4 K
2
HPO
4
,
0.2 KH
2
PO
4
, 0.1 NaCl, 0.1 MgSO
4
, 0.01 MnSO
4
H
2
O, 0.01
Fe
2
(SO
4
)
3
H
2
O, 0.01 Na
2
MoO
4
2H
2
O, 0.4 (NH
4
)
2
SO
4
(pH = 6.0).
The linear liquid velocities in the riser and the downcomer
were obtained by the tracer response method; the pH electrodes
were located at 0.2 and 0.8 mabove the bottomof the bioreactor,
respectively (Lu et al., 1994; Wen et al., 2005a). Gas holdups
and linear gas velocities in the riser and the downcomer were
obtained by ve-point conductivity probe located at 0.4 mabove
the bottom of the bioreactor, respectively (Wen et al., 2002).
3.3. Batch phenol biodegradation experiments
Pure culture of the yeast C. tropicalis stored in our lab was
used for batch phenol biodegradation in the ILAB in this study.
This strain was isolated with the ability to utilize phenol as sole
carbon source and could tolerate very high phenol concentra-
tion up to 2000 mg/L (Jiang et al., 2005). Liquid cultures were
grown in the mineral salt medium supplemented with 500 mg/L
phenol at 30
l
liquid viscosity, Pa s
max
maximum specic growth rate, h
1
density, kg/m
3
surface tension, N/m
Superscripts
0 initial condition
t time
Subscripts
b bottom section
c column
d downcomer
g gas phase
i riser or downcomer
l liquid phase
m mineral salt medium
r riser
S phenol
t top section
X cell
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to acknowledge the nancial support pro-
vided by the Key National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 20336030), Key Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin
(No. 05YFJZJC 00500), Program for New Century Excellent
Talents in University and Program for Changjiang Scholars and
Innovative Research Team in University.
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