Heat Transfer in Bioreactors In agitated bioreactors, heat transfer may be affected by one of the following three configurations.

Jackets surrounding the surface of the vessel Internal surfaces, such as coils or vertical baffles Circulation through an external heat exchanger Jackets External jackets come in a variety of forms including a simple unsupported jacket and the half pipe coil (limpet) jacket, consisting if half pipe wound around the exterior of the jacket to for a helix. Half pipe jackets while more expensive to synthesise, they enhance local service side heat. They also have better surface area for heat transfer and maintain turbulent flow in the service side, both of which lead to better overall heat transfer. However, they are unsuitable for fermentation for the following reasons As with the jacket, these systems are prone to fouling due to microbial growth. Coils are inherently difficult to clean During sterilisation, local hotspots may occur causing deleterious affects in the fermentation media.

External Heat Exchange External heat exchangers, while highly efficient and extremely useful are not suitable for fermentation processes simply because the cycling of fermentation broth through an external heat exchanger is an extreme contamination risk. The sterile pumping of large volumes of fluids is inherently difficult, pumps typically utilised for such processes include, peristaltic diaphragm pumps. However in some cases, i.e. the production of single cell protein (SCP) from highly reduced substrates (such as alkanes), where the metabolic heat is impossible to cope with utilising internal heat exchangers, this approach had to be used.

Rate of Heat Transfer to Heat Exchanger The rate of heat transfer to the heat exchanger (Qhxcr) is described by the following equation
Qhxcr = UA T

Where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is the area available for heat transfer and is the driving force (Tbroth Thxcr) T Providing the broth and coolant are well mixed, U can be calculated on the basis of the prevailing resistances to heat transfer in the system

The process side broth interface The process-side fouling The vessel or coil wall The service side fouling The service side boundary layer

1 hi 1 hfi

e k
1 hfo
1 h0

The following equation may be applied to a jacketed vessel

1 1 1 e 1 1 = + + + + U hi hfi k hfo h0

e wall thickness (m) k thermal conductivity (W m-1 K-1) Therefore the overall heat transfer coefficient not only depends on the heat exchanger configuration and on the choice of coolant, it also depends on the fermentation fluid, it fouling potential and its degree of mixing. Correlations for h0 are typically available and provided by system vendor. Generally the vessel wall provides the least resistance to heat transfer. Generally contribution to resistance can be ignored unless vessel is fabricated from stainless steel with a wall thickness of >5mm. Beyond this point becomes significant. Process Side Film Heat Transfer Coefficients

The film heat transfer coefficient or hi depends on several parameters including fluid physical properties (density, viscosity, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity), agitation conditions and vessel geometry (including impeller type) We would like to assume that this resistance is uniform over the entire surface of the tank, however it has been demonstrated that local heat transfer coefficients are higher in the plane of the impeller than they are above or below the impeller. This aside, there are general form correlations available for standard reactor configurations between operational variables and the film heat transfer coefficient. The Nusselt number, is a dimensionless number combining the process side film heat transfer coefficient (hi), the broth thermal conductivity (k) and the tank diameter (DT) in the following format.
hi DT k

Nu =

The general form of the correlation is as follows

d

Nu = a Re b Pr c w

Where a, b, c and d are constants, Re is the impeller Reynolds number and Pr is the Prandtl number.

Pr =

Cp k

Where Cp is the heat capacity of the broth. is the bulk broth viscosity w is the viscosity of the broth at the wall temperature. For example the correlation
0.14

Nu = 0.74 Re

0.66

Pr

0.33

has been suggested for a single Rushton turbine in a standard reactor configuration, generating a Reynolds number greater then 400. Broth Viscosity and Heat Transfer Similar correlations apply for Newtonian and Non-Newtonian systems. For Newtonian systems, fluid viscosity is interpreted at an average shear rate in the bioreactor. This approach is slightly flawed as significantly higher apparent viscosities may be expected near the vessel wall in shear thinning (psuedoplastic) fluids then in Newtonian systems. For example, for a S. rimosus broth exhibiting power law behaviour, with a consistency index (K) of 0.6 N sn m2 and a flow behaviour index (n) if 0.46, a reduction in shear rate from 100 s-1 to 10 s-1 results in an increase of apparent viscosity from 0.05 to 0.17Ns m-2. This in turn results in a 33% decrease in the heat transfer coefficient.

Aeration and Process Side Heat Transfer There are relatively few studies on the affect of aeration on process side heat transfer. What information exists is currently inconclusive, with most data for averages data for heat transfer coefficients lying within 15% of the unaerated value Where impeller flooding occurs due to excessive aeration, resulting in inadequate mixing in the reactor the effects can be more extreme. Generally it can be assumed that heat transfer decreases with increasing superficial gas velocity (Usg). This is thought to be due to the decrease in shaft power input due to aeration (Pg=0.6xP) Is Heat Transfer Uniform over the Entire Surface of the Bioreactor? In an agitated system there is strong evidence to suggest that the local heat transfer coefficient is higher in the plane of the agitator and deviates away from this maximum the greater the distance above and below. While this is evident in practice, the correlations utilised for heat transfer in an agitated bioreactor are based on an average heat transfer coefficient over the entire reactor of heat exchanger surface.