Using Microbubbles to Intensify the Performance of Airlift Bioreactors

工业生物技术目前仅用于生产少量高价值的特种化学品，但有望满足以可持续方式生产各种产品的需求（减少环境影响，提高能源和原材料利用率，减少废物产生）。然而，阻碍实现该目标的主要因素之一是大多数当前生物反应器设计不能同时实现高生产率和能量效率，这些因素强烈依赖于生物反应器中存在的气相和液相之间的材料交换速率。这对于为微生物提供刺激其生物活性并加速生物转化过程的环境是必要的。在通常需要提高生产率和经济竞争力的高细胞密度下，这是特别关键的。

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.