Examining the Impact of Microenvironments on Large-Scale Bioreactor Processes
ORAL
Abstract
Large-scale bioreactors play a critical role in enhancing the bioeconomy and advancing biotechnology-related industries. In transitioning from the laboratory- to the industrial-scale, the complexity of these fluid systems increases, making microbial performance harder to predict. Computational fluid dynamics is a vital tool in exploring how the change in dynamics during scale-up affects these bioprocesses. We investigate the formation and impact of microenvironments within bioreactors of increasing size and their influence on microbe cell production. The investigation is based on a multiphase solver we developed within OpenFOAM that couples multi-component transport and reaction processes specific to the organism P. putida, incorporating experimental data through metabolic model parameters. Preliminary studies target microenvironment development within a range of bioreactor sizes and configurations.
*This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, managed and operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. This material is based on work supported by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science under the Biological and Environmental Research program and within the 'Accelerate Innovations in Emerging Technologies' program. This research was performed using computational resources sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government.
