Gas-liquid mass transfer rates in unbaffled tanks stirred by PBT: scale-up effects and pumping direction

Abstract Unbaffled stirred tanks are increasingly recognized as a viable alternative to common baffled tanks for a range of applications such as biochemical, food or pharmaceutical processes where the presence of baffles is undesirable for some reason. In this work, the mass transfer performance of unbaffled stirred tanks with pitched blade turbine, operating either in up-pumping or down-pumping mode, was investigated. The influence of impeller size and liquid viscosity were also investigated. The mass transfer intensity was measured by means of the Simplified Dynamic Pressure. Method The measurements concerned both coalescent and non-coalescent (viscous) batches. Results confirm that increasing apparatus size has a slightly positive effect on gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient. It was also found that when the PBT is operating in the up-pumping mode the formation of surface oscillations, which lead to undesired instabilities of the whole apparatus, is conveniently minimized. In the super-critical regime, the unbaffled tanks provide a performance comparable with that of the standard (baffled) bioreactors at the same power dissipation, which makes them a viable alternative for general fermentation operations and other gas–liquid reactions.