Rheology of Bioprocess Fluids…

…with particular reference to fermentation broths.

References
• Doran, Chapter 7
• Blanch and Clark, Chapter 5
• Atkinson and Mavituna, Chapter 11
• Olsvik, E. and Kristiansen, B., "Rheology of Filamentous Fermentations",
Biotechnol. Adv., 12, 1-39 (1994).

Inter-relations between viscosity and broth processing

Medium

Cell Growth Product Cell

Formation Morphology

Viscosity

Broth Handling Bioreactor

DSP Conditions

Heat Mixing Mass

Transfer Requirments Transfer

Rheology of Fermentation Fluids

Bioreactor performance influenced by broth rheology, which is determined by:
• biomass concentration
• morphology
• biomass growth rate
• extracellular components
As these parameters typically very throughout the course of a fermentation, so too
will the rheology.
• correlations which describe viscosity as a function of biomass concentration only
are of limited value
• polymer solutions, paper pulp suspensions often used to simulate flow behaviour
of fermentation broths, but they do not include effects of active biomass on system
performance

Correlations for broth viscosity

Vand equation for a suspension of spheres (volume fraction 
) in a Newtonian liquid
of viscosity 
L:

µ = µ L (1 + 2.5φ + 7.25φ 2 )
• Limited applicability; valid for yeast/spore suspensions < 14 vol% solids.
• dependency of  on biomass generally stronger than predicted by Vand Equation

Correlations for mycelial systems based on biomass concentration

Authors Correlation
Takahashi and Yamada (1960)   1.1

Deindorfer and Gaden (1955) y  

2.3-2.5

Solomons and Weston (1961)   2.65

 (cell dry weight conc.),  (shear stress), y (yield stress)

Correlations for Power-Law Broths

System Correlation
A. niger k  3.3
P. chrysogenum k  2.5
S. levoris k  0.7
(Allen and Robinson, 1990)
but
Rheological parameters (k, n, y ) also influenced by specific growth rate, DO,
osmotic pressure of medium. (Olsvik and Kristiansen)

Insert pages!

Influence of System Morphology

e.g. Penicillium, Aspergillus, Streptomyces broths
• Casson Plastic Model
(metz et al., 1979)
Kp  Lhgu0.6
y  Le0.8 2.5
Where Le is the hyphal length, Lghu is the hyphal growth unit (total hyphal length/no.
of tips)
Correlation found to be applicable for batch experiments, but not for continuous
(possibly due to differences in cell flexibility)

• Power law Model

Fatile (1985)
K  0.3 dp0.2
n  -0.06 dp-0.08
Where  is the biomass concentration (dry weight) and dp is the aggregate diameter
Frequently, as  
, K , n 
, but no simple relationship exists between solids
concentration and rheology.