To study yeast growth kinetics in a specially designed external loop airlift bioreactor

Abstract

Two types of airlift fermenters, conventional (UT-ALF) and modified (CDT-ALF) were investigated to evaluate their performance with respect to baker’s yeast growth. The riser tube of conventional external loop airlift fermenter is replaced by a converging-diverging tube. The new reactor is called modified airlift reactor. The results were compared for the two types of airlift fermenter (UT-ALF and CDT-ALF). Growth rates (dx/dt) were determined from experimental data for both the reactors under identical operating conditions and compared. CDT-ALF always shows higher growth rate compared to UT-ALF under any operating condition. Maximum growth was reported in CDT-ALF at 50 gm/l initial glucose conc. and 1.0 vvm air flow rate which was 20 % higher than UT-ALF. Yield (YX/S) was found to be 0.51which is theoretically very near to maximum achievable value.