A Study on Hydrodynamics and Heat Transfer in a Bubble Column Reactor with Yeast and Bacterial Cell Suspensions

Abstract

AbstractHydrodynamics and heat transfer experiments were carried out in a slurry bubble column with air‐water‐yeast cells and air‐water‐bacteria cells systems to investigate gas hold‐up, bubble characteristics and heat transfer coefficients with cell concentrations of 0.1% w/w and 0.4% w/w and superficial gas velocity up to 0.20 m/s. The gas hold‐ups and heat transfer coefficients were found to increase with increasing gas velocity and cell concentration. The heat transfer coefficients were higher at the centre of the column as compared to the near wall region. The development of empirical correlations to predict the heat transfer coefficient in two‐ and three‐phase systems was carried out with ±15% confidence interval at most.