Abstract
A scale-up strategy for a nitrification process with immobilized cells is presented. The complete description of such a process for a wide range of conditions is time consuming or even impossible. For a successful scale up of the process knowledge of the rate-limiting step is essential. To estimate the rate-limiting step a regime analysis was used. A new element in this regime analysis is a solid third phase in which cells grow non-homogeneously. Three different conditions of the nitrification process were considered: low temperature (7°C) with a low ammonia concentration (2 mM), and optimal temperature (30°C) with an ammonia concentration of 2 and 250 mM. The regime analysis proved to be a helpful tool for the understanding of the process and for establishing the rate-limiting step. A set of design rules for the different nitrification conditions was obtained from the results of this regime analysis.
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Abbreviations
- a g m2m−3 :
-
specific surface area of a gas bubble gas phase
- a lg m2m−3 :
-
surface area of the liquid/gas liquid phase inter phase
- a ls m2m−3 :
-
surface area of the solid/liquid liquid phase inter phase
- a s m2m3 :
-
specific surface area of a gelbead solid phase
- d b m:
-
gas bubble diameter
- d p m:
-
biocatalyst particle diameter
- E a Jmol−1 :
-
activation energy
- g ms−2 :
-
gravitational acceleration
- H m3 m−3 :
-
Henry coefficient
- \(\mathbb{D}\) m2s−1 :
-
diffusion coefficient
- k lg ms−1 :
-
mass transfer coefficient for gas to liquid phase
- k ls ms−1 :
-
mass transfer coefficient for liquid to solid phase
- K s molm−3 :
-
substrate affinity constant
- m s molN (kg biomassa)−1s−1 :
-
maintenance coefficient
- R Jmol−1 K−1 :
-
gas constant
- S molm−3 :
-
substrate concentration
- S sur molm−3 :
-
substrate concentration at surface of the biocatalyst
- S bulk mol m−3 :
-
substrate concentration in bulk phase
- Y kgmol−1 :
-
yield coefficient for biomass on substrate
- X kgm−3 :
-
biomass concentration
- Z dimensionless:
-
temperature effected parameter value
- z t8 dimensionless:
-
temperature independent parameter value
- ɛ g m3gas m−3 :
-
gas hold up liquid
- ɛ s m3 solid m−3 liquid:
-
solid phase hold up
- η i dimensionless:
-
effectiveness factor
- λ i m2Smol−1 :
-
molar ionic conductivity
- τ s:
-
characteristic time
- τ g s:
-
τ for growth
- τ oex s:
-
τ for oxygen exhaustion of gas bubbles
- τ olg s:
-
τ for oxygen transfer from gas to liquid phase
- τ liqret s:
-
τ for the liquid retention time
- τ gasret s:
-
τ for the gas retention time
- τ ils s:
-
τ for substrate (i) transfer from liquid to solid phase
- τ mix s:
-
τ for mixing of liquid phase
- τ circ s:
-
τ for liquid circulation in air-lift loop reactor
- τ ikin s:
-
τ for substrate (i) conversion
- τ iconv s:
-
τ for substrate (i) conversion in the biocatalyst
- μ max s−1 :
-
maximum specific growth rate
- ω Nsm−2 :
-
dynamic viscosity
- ρ l kgm−3 :
-
density of liquid phase
- ρ s kgm−3 :
-
density of solid phase
- i:
-
NH4, NO −2 , NO3 and Ns, Nb for N. europaea, N. agilis, respectively.
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This project was supported by the European Community in the programme Science and Technology for Environmental Protection (ref. STEP-CT91-0123).
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Hunik, J.H., Tramper, J. & Wijffels, R.H. A strategy to scale up nitrification processes with immobilized cells of nitrosomonas europaea and nitrobacter agilis. Bioprocess Engineering 11, 73–82 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389563
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389563