Characterisation of mixing in horizontal rotating tubular bioreactor by dispersion and structured model

A horizontal rotating tubular bioreactor (HRTB) was designed as a combination of a "thin-layer bioreactor" and a "biodisc" reactor. Its interior was divided by O-ring shaped partition walls which could be used as a carriers for the film of microbial biomass (1,2). Mixing properties of this new type of bioreactor were investigated by using a temperature step method and different mixing models. A dispersion model for mixing which use Bodenstein number as a parameter was compared with a structured "spiral flow" model. The obtained results show that structured "spiral flow" model (containing four adjustable parameters) is more capable to describe mixing properties in HRTB than the one parameter dispersion model.