DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF A BIOREACTOR EQUIPPED WITH A VENTURI INJECTOR FOR HIGH GAS TRANSFER RATES

A bioreactor where microorganisms metabolizing a gaseous substrate mix ture were grown was equipped with a Venturi injector in order to obtai n high gas transfer rates while allowing cell growth and activity. Gas transfer rates were determined under various geometry designs using o xygen and aqueous sulphite. k(L)a values up to 0.5 s-1 were observed. Preliminary experiments revealed that, under these shear stress condit ions, Acetobacterium wieringae was still able to metabolize a mixture of CO2 and H-2 to produce acetate over several hours.