Using Microbubbles to Intensify the Performance of Airlift Bioreactors

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Industrial biotechnology is presently used to produce only small quantities of high-value specialty chemicals but holds the promise of being able to meet the need for generating a wide range of products in a sustainable fashion (lower environmental impact, better energy and raw material utilization, and lower waste generation). However, one of the major factors that hinders the achievement of this goal is the inability of most current bioreactor designs to simultaneously achieve high productivity and energy efficiency, factors which are strongly dependent on the rate at which material is exchanged between the gas and liquid phases present in the bioreactor. This is necessary in order to provide the microorganisms with the environment that stimulates their biological activity and accelerates the biotransformation processes. This is particularly critical under the high cell densities usually needed to improve productivity and economic competitiveness.