Simulation of gas-inducing reactor couples gas–liquid mass transfer and biochemical reaction

• Gas-inducing reactor is a high efficiency and energy conservation reactor.
• A CFD model couples gas–liquid mass transfer and biochemical reaction to describe yeast growth in gas-inducing reactor.
• A CFD model which is useful for the design and scale up of gas-inducing reactor.

In the present study Euler–Euler's two fluid model coupled with mass transfer and biochemical reaction and experiment were applied to investigate hydrodynamic characteristic and bio-reaction parameters in self-induced bioreactor. Biochemistry parameters, like biomass, residual sugar concentration and dissolved oxygen concentration were measured. Higbie's penetration theory was applied to gas–liquid mass transfer and Monod's equation was used to build a growth model for yeast in self-induced bioreactor. The computational model was mapped on ANSYS CFX 10.0. The biomass, residual sugar and dissolved oxygen concentration predicted by numerical simulation were validated with results from experiments. The distribution of local biomass, residual sugar concentration and dissolved oxygen were successfully predicted by simulation, which reflect the effect of geometry of reactor and physical-chemistry conditions.