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Experimental Study of Biodegradation of Ethanol and Toluene Vapors

Experimental Study of Biodegradation of Ethanol and Toluene Vapors

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kLa, s -1<br />

0.1<br />

0.08<br />

0.06<br />

0.04<br />

0.02<br />

0<br />

Water<br />

1 g/L ethanol<br />

3 g/L ethanol<br />

8 g/L ethanol<br />

0 200 400 600 800<br />

Impeller speed, rpm<br />

Figure 4-3. Effects <strong>of</strong> ethanol concentration <strong>and</strong> impeller speed on oxygen mass transfer<br />

coefficients (error bars are st<strong>and</strong>ard deviations)<br />

compared to increases <strong>of</strong> 2.4 times observed by Benedek <strong>and</strong> Heideger (1971) using<br />

11.7 g/L <strong>of</strong> sodium chloride. Voigt <strong>and</strong> Schugerl (1979) reported that k L a increased by<br />

a factor <strong>of</strong> three with ethanol addition in a bubble column.<br />

The overall oxygen transfer coefficient increases with increasing impeller speed<br />

over the range <strong>of</strong> 135 to 600 rpm as shown in Figure 4-3. This trend agrees with k L a<br />

measurements in stirred tanks reported by others (Benedek <strong>and</strong> Heideger, 1971;<br />

Robinson <strong>and</strong> Wilke, 1973, 1974; Hassan <strong>and</strong> Robinson, 1980).<br />

The gas holdup was also measured for each operating condition. After the<br />

bioreactor was filled initially with the ethanol solution, the gas volume was determined<br />

by measuring the amount <strong>of</strong> liquid that overflowed with the introduction <strong>of</strong> air at a<br />

constant flow rate <strong>of</strong> 3.5 L/min at each impeller speed. The gas holdup was then<br />

50

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