CFD-based compartment model for description of mixing in bioreactors

•A CFD-based compartment model is proposed to describe mixing in stirred bioreactors.•Mean and turbulent flowrates between compartments are defined from CFD simulations.•The model is able to predict the mixing evolution with an excellent accuracy.•The model was validated by comparison with inert tracer experiments.•Unlike other available models, it does not require the adjustment of any parameter.

In most bioprocesses, it is fundamental to accurately predict the hydrodynamics behavior of bioreactors of different size and its interaction with the biological reaction. Computational Fluid Dynamics can provide detailed modeling about hydrodynamics and mixing. However, it is computationally intensive, especially when reactions are taken into account. Another way to predict hydrodynamics is the use of “Compartment” or “Network-of-zones” model which are much less demanding in computation time than CFD. However, compartments and fluxes between them are often defined by considering global quantities not representative of the flow complexity. To overcome the limitations of these two methods, a solution is to combine compartment modeling and CFD simulations. The aim of this study is to propose a compartment model where the flow rates between two adjacent compartments are easily computed from the velocity fields obtained by CFD. The mixing evolution predicted by the CFD-based compartment model have been then compared with mixing experiment results. Unlike a CFD mixing simulation and a classical compartment model, the CFD-based compartment model proposed in this work reproduces with a good accuracy the spatial distribution of concentrations during the mixing process and this, without any adjustable parameters.