Tutorial 5

1. Calculate the power requirements, with and without aeration, of a 1.5 m- diameter
stirred tank, containing water 1.5 m deep, equipped with a six-blade Rushton turbine
(Np=6) that is 0.5 m in diameter d, with blades 0.25 d long and 0.2 d wide, operating
at a rotational speed of 180 rpm. Air is supplied from the tank bottom at a rate of 0.6
m3/min. Also estimate kLa for oxygen absorption into water.

log(PG/Po) = -192 (Di/Dt)4.38 (Re)0.115 (Fr)0.653 (Na)

kLa = 0.026 (PG/V)0.4 (Ug)0.5
2. The optimum agitation speed for the cultivation of plant cells in a 3 litre fermenter
equipped with four baffles was found to be 150 rpm.
a. What should be the impeller speed of a geometrically similar 1000 L fermenter if
you scale up based on the same power consumption per unit volume?
b. When the impeller speed suggested by part (a) was employed for the cultivation of
the 1000-L fermenter, the cells do not seem to grow well due to the high shear
generated by the impeller even though the impeller speed is lower than 150 rpm of
the model system. Justify your answer.
3. Calculate the power requirement with and without aeration, of a 1.5 m diameter stirred
tank, containing water 1.5 m deep, equipped with a six blade Rushton turbine that is
0.5 m in diameter d, with 0.25 d long and 0.25 d wide, operating at an operational
speed of 180 rpm. Air is suspended from the tank bottom at a rate of 0.6 m 3/min.
Operation is at room temperature. Values of water viscosity is 0.001 kg/m s and water
density is 1000 kg/m3.

Empirical relation between P gassed (PG) and P non gassed (Po) is given as: log(PG/Po)
= -192 (Di/Dt)4.38 (Re)0.115 (Fr)0.653 (Na)

Also find out the KLa for oxygen absorption into water for the case of aerated stirred
tank.
Empirical relation for KLa is given as: KLa = 0.026 (PG/V)0.4 (Vs)0.5

PG/V is the power to volume ratio and Vs is the superficial gas velocity.
4. A fermenter is to be scaled up from a 10 to 10k litre vessel. The small fermenter has a
height to diameter ratio of 3. The impeller diameter (Di) is 30% of the tank diameter
(Dt). Agitator speed is 500 rpm and three Rushton impellers are used. Determine the
dimensions of the large fermenter and the agitation speed for:
a. Constant P/V
b. Constant impeller tip speed
c. Constant Reynolds number
5. After a batch fermentation, the system is disassembled and seventy five percent of the
cell mass is suspended in the liquid phase (2 litre), while the rest is attached to
various surfaces in the inside the reactor (reactor walls and internals) in a thick film
(ca. 0.3 cm). Analysis demonstrates that fifty five percent of the target product
(intracellular) is associated with each cell fraction. The productivity of this reactor is
2 gm product/lit at the 2 lit scale. What would be the productivity at 20,000 litre
scale if both reactors are geometrically similar with height-to-diameter ratio of 2 to 1?