title: Principle and Performance of Gas Self-inducing Reactors and Applications to Biotechnology.
abstract: Gas-liquid contacting is an important unit operation in chemical and biochemical processes, but the gas utilization efficiency is low in conventional gas-liquid contactors especially for sparingly soluble gases. The gas self-inducing impeller is able to recycle gas in the headspace of a reactor to the liquid without utilization of additional equipment such as a gas compressor, and thus, the gas utilization efficiency is significantly enhanced. Gas induction is caused by the low pressure or deep vortex at a sufficiently high impeller speed, and the speed at which gas induction starts is termed the critical speed. The critical impeller speed, gas-induction flow rate, power consumption, and gas-liquid mass transfer are determined by the impeller design and operation conditions. When the reactor is operated in a dead-end mode, all the introduced gas can be completely used, and this feature is especially favorable to flammable and/or toxic gases. In this article, the principles, designs, characteristics of self-inducing reactors, and applications to biotechnology are described.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China. qye@ecust.edu.cn.
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Ye
authors: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China.
authors: Zhimin
authors: Z
authors: Li
authors: State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China.
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Wu
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008956:Models, Chemical; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D005740:Gases
keywords: Critical speed; Gas self-inducing reactor; Gas-induction rate; Impeller; Power consumption; Volumetric mass transfer coefficient