Enhanced oxygen transfer rates in fermentation using soybean oil-in-water dispersions

The effect of soybean oil on the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient during the cultivation ofAerobacter aerogenes cells is presented. For our aeration-agitation conditions (0.278 vvm and 500 rpm), it has been demonstrated that the use 19% (v/v) of soybean oil enabled a 1.85-fold increase of thekl a coefficient (calculated on a per liter aqueous phase basis). For smaller volumetric oil fractions,kL a increased linearly with the oil loading. Because of the oxygen-vector properties of soybean oil, this oil is able to significantly increase thekL a of a bioreactor.