Gas holdup in an external-loop air-lift fermentor with a contaminated gas distributor.
Contamination of the porous-plate gas distributor was observed in an air-lift fermentor used for Aspergillus fumigatus fermentations. Comparisons between gas holdups measured with uncontaminated distributors and the contaminated one showed that the contamination had no effect on gas holdups in water but reduced the holdups in sodium chloride and sodium sulfate solutions, probably due to increased bubble coalescence. A correlation for gas holdups with clean distributors(2) could be used to represent the results for the comtaminated distributor by changing the values used for the characteristic velocities of the electrolyte solutions.
Biochemical Engineering Section, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, P.O. Box 363, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, U.K.
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McManamey
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Wase
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Raymahasay