Rotary Disc Bioreactors

Rotary Disc Bioreactors- Design and Application

Compiled by – Prashant Pokhriyal M.Tech

(BioProcess Technology) Institute of Chemical Technology,

Mumbai

TYPES OF BIOREACTOR

Bubble Column Reactor Fed- batch Reactor Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Rotating Biological Contactors

• First introduced in Germany in 1960s• Became popular in US in 1970s.• Biological growth is attached to the surface of the disc and forms a slime layer. • The discs contact the wastewater with the atmospheric air for oxidation as it rotates.• The discs are submerged in waste water to about 40% of their diameter.• Initial use didn’t proved to be economically justifiable compared to its cost.

Static vs RDR Fermentation

Motivation for Process Development• Tyagi et al (1992) made observations in the process involving

biodegradation of petroleum refinery wastewater in a polyurethane foam attached RBC revealed the ability of RBC to retain the considerable amounts of attached biomass, in conjugation with proper oxygen transfer rate environment.• The need to produce microbial cellulose in 1990s.• Conventional production methods proved to be difficult because of scaling up.uncontrollable foamingnecessity of intense washing or cooling

Literature SurveyS . N o A u t h o r ( s ) P u b l i c a ti o n / Pa te n t

1 Norhayati, 2009 Rotary discs reactor for enhanced production ofmicrobial cellulose

2 Kim et al. , 2007 Bacterial Cellulose Production byGluconacetobacter sp. RKY5 in a RotaryBiofilm Contactor

3 Chtioui et al. , 2012 Rotating discs bioreactor, a new tool for l ipopeptides production

4 Bungay, I I I et al. , 1995 Production of microbial cellulose using a rotating disk film bioreactor

5 Lin et al. , 2014 Semi-continuous bacterial cellulose production in a rotating disk bioreactor and its materials properties analysis

Physical Design• 10-Reactor as a whole • 12-Rotary Discs• 14-Shaft• G-Distance between two discs (should be as small

as possible)• 16-biological medium required to wet the rotating

disk during rotation• 18-Externally positioned rotating device• 20-Cylinderical Trough• 22-Hermetically sealing bearing which serves to

connect the shaft to an externally positioned• rotating device• 24-Openings for measurement of Probes• 26-Probes• 28-Sampling and Draining Points

DiscDiscs Diameter Characterization

PMMA 7 cm Dril l with 0.3 cm holes, 0.3 cm thickness

Stainless Steel 7 cm 0.3 cm mesh sizes, 0.05 cm thickness

Polyethylene 7 cm 0.3 cm mesh sizes, 0.05 cm thickness

Polyethylene 7 cm 0.6 cm mesh sizes, 0.1 cm thickness

Comparison of Various Physical Designs in available LiteratureDesign

Parameters Norhayat i , 2009 Kim et a l . , 2007 Chitoui e t a l . , 2012

Serafica e t a l . , 2002

Bungay, II I et a l . , 1995

Krystynowiczet al., 2002 Lin et al., 2013

M at e r i a l o f Cons t ru c t i on

(P M M A)P o ly -me t hy l me t ac ry l a t e

P o l yp ropy l ene

Gl as s cy l i nde r equ ipped

wi th s t a in l e s s

s t ee l d i s c s

C l ea r p l a s t i c cy l i nde rs w i t h s t a in l e s s s t ee l

c en t e r s ha f t s and po l ye t hy l en e D i sc

M ade up o f s t a in l e s s s t ee l

o rpo l ymer i c

ma t e r i a l s Wi t h s u ff c i en t r i g i d i t y

-

P l as t i c co mpos i t e

su pp o r t (P CS ) , a co mpos i t e

Ma t e r i a l

Di s c Di ame t e r 7 cm 12 cm 9 .4 cm -

80 -90% o f d i am e te r o f Cy l i nd r i ca l

Trough

- -

Di s c Th i ckn es s - 0 .3 cm 1 .5 m m - - - -

S ubm ergence o f Di s c i n t he Med i a (%)

39 34 ~50 - - - 50

Num ber o f Di s c s 8 8 7 and 14 - - 24 -

Ro t a t i ona l S p eed pe r m i nu te 15 -35 30 12 6-12 6 5

Volu me o f Troug h 2 L i t r e s 3 .54*10 - 3 L 0 .05 L 2 L 1 L 2 L and 11 L

Critical Factors affecting the operation of RDB

• Fermentation conditions, which include the composition of the media that is the carbon, nitrogen and mineral

composition microbe used.

• Operating Conditions, such as dissolved oxygen pH inoculation ratio inoculation age.


Parameters Norhayati, 2009 Kim et al., 2007 Chitoui et al., 2012

Serafica et al., 2002

Bungay, I I I et al., 1995

Krystynowiczet al., 2002

Lin et al., 2013

Microbe Acetobacter xylinum

Gluconacetobacter Bacil lus subtilis ATCC 21332

Acetobacter xylinum

Acetobacter xylinum

Acetobacter xylinum E2 5

Gluconacetobacter xylinum

Media Composition

Shigeru Yamanaka Medium

Modified HS medium

Landy medium

Media used by Hestrin andSchramm (1954)

GYP medium Schramm and Hestrin medium

CSL-Fru medium

Temperature 26 30 30 25-35 30 28

pH 5 6 7 4 4.5-5.5 3-5

Design Considerations• Steady State Model regarding effluent substrate effluent concentrations-• ; • cB = Substrate concentration in the bulk of the liquid in the trough• Ff = Volumetric flow rate of liquid film• F = Flow rate of feed per single disc face• c0 = Concentration of substrate in the feed• b11 and b12, are elements of the matrix (bij) = exp(Aβ), the solution matrix

of equation c(θ) = exp(Aβ)c(0)• kL = Mass transfer coefficient between liquid film and biofilm• As = Area of the disc submerged in the trough

Mass Balances• ; Overall Mass Balance• ; Overall Particle Balance• ; Overall Glucose Balance, assuming lag phase has completed.• V is the liquid volume• xp is the particle concentration in solution, • kp is a particle uptake rate constant• Ad is the total disk area• FH, FD and FO are the volumetric flow rates of the concentrated particle• feed, dilute sugar feed and outlet streams respectively• accounts for the uptake of particles in the growing cellulose gel• is the specific growth rate,• m is the mass of active biomass per unit disk area (assumed to be• constant at a quasi-steady state value)• is the yield of biomass from glucose

Power Requirements• General Power Number Calculation

• Power Number calculated per unit surface area• ; (Laminar Conditions)• ; (Turbulent Conditions)


Microbial cellulose weight versus pH after 5 days fermentation in RDR

Microbial Cellulose Fermantation in RDR after 5 days fermentation

𝑑𝑀 𝑐

𝑑𝑡 =µ𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑚𝐴𝑑

𝑌 𝑐/𝑔

𝑑𝑀 𝑃

𝑑𝑡 =𝑘𝑝 𝐴𝑑 𝑥𝑃

mass of d ry ce l lu lose Par t ic le mass in g rowing gel

Potential Applications• The sequential bioreactions, where enzyme immobilization can prove

to be beneficial.• Controlling of permeability gels formed with embedded particles.• Wound dressings or artificial skin with time release particles.• Manufacture of elegant grade paper.• Conductive paper containing metallic particles. • Abrasive Papers with particles inside instead of glued to the surface.

Advantages of Rotary Disc Bioreactors• Simple Design.• Relatively low energy consumption.• Easy maintenance.• Easy to scale-up.• No problem of foaming, especially in the production of lipopeptides and surfactants.• Proper aeration. • Higher Production yield.• Ability to combine two unit operations.• Can use waste organic waste as substrate.• Larger area available for production of molecule of interest.• Capability to change the media conditions during the fermentation process.

Comparative assessment

S t ra i n s S t a ti c C u l t u re / B C e l ( g / L / d a y )

P C S - R D B / B C e l ( g / L /d ay )

G . x y l i n u m 2 3 7 6 9 0 . 3 ± 0 . 0 2 5 0 . 1 4 8 ± 0 . 0 4 7

G . x y l i n u m 7 0 0 1 7 8 0 . 2 4 ± 0 . 0 0 9 0 . 2 1 ± 0 . 0 4 4

Conclusions and future work

• The Rotary Disc Reactors are an effective, yet still unexplored methodology for the production of cellular metabolites.• The production in RDB is affected by the design as well as the

operational parameter like rotational speed, air flow rate etc.• More research work is needed to be done for their more diverse

applications.

References• Bungay, Henry R., Serafica, Gonzalo C., Production of Microbial Cellulose using Rotating Disc Film Bioreactor, 1999. U.S. Patent 5,955,326• Chtioui, Omar, Dimitrov, Krasimir, Gancel, Frédérique, Dhulster, Pascal, Nikov, Iordan, 2012. Rotating discs bioreactor, a new tool for

lipopeptides production. Process Biochemistry 47 (2012) 2020–2024• Hansford, G. S., Andrews,J. F., GRIEVES, C. G., Carr, A. D., 1978, A steady-state model for the Rotating Biological Disc Reactor. Water

Research vol 12 pp. 855-868.• Kinsey, Matthew Kuure, Weber, Dale, Bungay, Henry R., Plawsky, Joel L., Bequette, B. Wayne,2005. Modeling and Predictive Control of a

Rotating Disk Bioreactor. American Control Conference June 8-10, 2005. Portland, OR, USA• Lin, Shin-Ping, Hsieh, Shu-Chen, Chen, Kuan-I, Demirci, Ali, Cheng, Kuan-Chen, 2013. Semi-continuous bacterial cellulose production in a

rotating disk bioreactor and its materials properties analysis. Cellulose (2014) 21:835–844• Pa’e, Norhayati Binti, 2009. Rotary Discs Reactor for enhanced production of microbial cellulose. Faculty of Chemical and Natural

Resources Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.• Karmanev, D. G., 1991. Model of the biofilm structure of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. Journal of Biotechnology 20 (1991) 51-64.• Kim, Yong-Jun, Kim, Jin-Nam, Wee, Young-Jung, Park, Don-Hee, Ryu, Hwa-Won, 2007. Bacterial Cellulose Production by

Gluconacetobacter sp. RKY5 in a Rotary Biofilm Contactor. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 529 Vol. 136–140, 2007.• Krystynowicz, A, Czaja, W, Wiktorowska ,A Jezierska, Miskiewicz, M Goncalves, Turkiewicz, M, Bielecki, S., 2002. Factors affecting the

yield and properties of bacterial cellulose. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2002) 29, 189 – 195• Lin, JP, Chen, B, Wu, JP, Cen, PL, 1997. L-Lactic acid fermentation in a rotating-disc contactor with simultaneous product separation by ion-

exchange. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.5, No.1, 49-55, 1997.• Mormino, R., Bungay, H., 2003. Composites of bacterial cellulose and paper made with a rotating disk bioreactor. Appl Microbiol

Biotechnol (2003) 62:503–506 DOI 10.1007/s00253-003-1377-5. • Serafica, G., Mormino, R., Bungay, H.,2002. Inclusion of solid particles in bacterial cellulose. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2002) 58:756–760

DOI 10.1007/s00253-002-0978-8• Tyagi, R.D., Tran, F. T., Chowdhury, A. K. M. M.,1991. Performance of RBC coupled to a polyurethane foam to biodegrade petroleum

refinery wastewater. Environmental Pollution 76 (1992) 61-70.

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