Instrumentação e Controle de

Bioreatores
 Introdução

• O STR, é um dos biorreatores mais utilizados, aproxima-se

razoavelmente bem ao estado idealizado de mistura
perfeita.
• Garante um tempo de mistura muito curto
• alta transferência de massa de líquido de gás em pequena
escala.
• Essas condições particulares de cultura são principalmente
alcançadas nos chamados bioreatores de alto desempenho.
• Transferência
• This is very important in microbial physiological studies
under conditions closely approaching those found in
industrial reactors to be able to distinguish between the
dynamics of cell reactions and the dynamics of the reaction
vessel. In such bioreactors cells are subjected to an
unchanging environment when circulated throughout the
liquid medium.
• A standard stirred tank bioreactor is normally supplied
with a means of measuring temperature, agitator
speed, pH, the incoming air-flow rate and dissolved
oxygen concentration. This basic instrumentation can
be complemented with several other sensors capable of
determining the pressure drop, dissolved CO2
concentration, biomass, off-gas analysis, foam control,
power and torque, and liquid flow feeding.
Common instruments for process automation

• 1.1. Temperature
• Thermocouples are the most widely used temperatures
sensors since they are cheap, provide rapid response and
may be used to measure both high and low temperatures.
• They are less accurate (±0.5⁰ C to ±2.2⁰C) than other
sensors, however, and must be calibrated periodically.
General view of the laboratory of the research group Bioprocesses
Control Laboratory with instrumentation
• 1.2 Gas Flowrate
• Differential Pressure Producers are frequently found in
industrial applications given their reliability and easy of use.
Their accuracy ranges from ±0.8 % to ± 5%.
• The basic principle is that any obstruction in the fluid stream
generates a pressure loss that is related to the flowrate of
the stream.
• The main limitation of such devices is that the cost in energy
from the loss of pressure cost can be considerable.
In-gas converter (air and oxygen), prototype developed by
Bioprocesses Control Laboratory group ICT Prague utilises
controllers F-201C-FZ (Bronkhorst Hi-Tec, Netherlands)
• Another commonly found air velocity measurement is the
turbine anemometer.
• Here, a rotating device is placed in the path of the fluid,
where its rotational speed is proportional t the fluid velocity
and provides accurate flow measurement over wide ranges.
• 1.3 Liquid Flowrate
• There are many ways of measuring liquid flowrates ranging
from those based on simple hydraulic properties to those
based on radioactive effects.
• Instruments are usually sensitive to noise, however,
interference from other electric devices must be controlled.
• Turbine meters are small electric turbines that generate an
electromotive force which is proportional to the mean fluid
velocity.
• This instruments are reliable, precise and can be used with
clean liquids.
• More suited for the dirty liquids sensors are magnetic
sensors, since they are non-invasive, but which are very
expensive.
• The instrument generates a magnetic field that is
perpendicular to the liquid flow.
• Less expensive Doppler sensors, can also be used to
measure flow rates of dirty liquids.
• Here, a continuous ultrasonic wave (0.5 to 10 MHz) emitted
by the instrument is reflected by the bubbles and suspended
solids in the liquid stream.
• Radioactive sensors are based on the
tracking of radioactive trace species.
• These are very precise instruments and
applicable to any kind of fluid, but they are
very expensive and dealing with radioactive
species is difficult.
• 1.4. Off-Gas Analysis
• Analysis of exhaust gases provides information on the
physiological state and respiration rate of the culture.
• On-line measurement of CO2 and O2 can be performed by
gas chromatography (GC) or special purpose gas
analyzers.
• The main advantages of GC are that many compounds can
be monitored with the same instrument over a wider range
of values
• Gas Analyzers, on the other hand, are more precise and
provide a faster response (few seconds). Several such
instruments exist. Paramagnetic analyzers, available for
CO2 and O2, are very precise, do not require periodic
calibration, present low interference to other gases and
have long lifetimes, but they are expensive.
• Infrared instruments , are available for CO2 only, are
precise and having a long lifetime, though they are
expensive and need occasional calibration.
• Electrochemical analyzers, only for O2, are
low cost instruments that provide good
precision, however a fuel cell must be
changed periodically (between months and 2
years)
Infrared analyzer CO2 Servomex 1440B
(Servomex International Ltd., Great Britain)
for off-gas analysis
Paramagnetic analyzer CO2 Servomex 1100A (Servomex International Ltd., Great
Britain) for off-gas analysis
Analyzer of medium composition – HPLC
chromatograph – with detectors Waters UV/VIS
2487 and Waters RI 2410 with two pumps Waters
515 (Waters Corp., Massachusetts, USA)
• 1.5 pH
• The pH sensitive electrode (usually made of glass)
contains a buffer solution at a constant pH. The glass
behaves as a membrane that separates the sample from the
buffer solution; a potential proportional to the pH difference
is generated.
• If pH control is critical to bioreactor operation, measurement
redundancy is recommended. Using three sensors would be
wise because when one gives a very different reading from
the other two it means that it needs cleaning.
Ion Sensitive Field-Effect Transistor - ISFET
• 1.6 Dissolved Oxygen
• When controlling dissolved oxygen in a bioreactor, it is often
sufficient to keep the dissolved oxygen above a certain
level.
• pO2 (partial pressure of dissolved oxygen)
• One of the most specific aspects of the fermentation
monitoring is pO2 measurement and control. pO2 control is
characteristic only for fermentation processes. There are
different pO2 control principles:
• pO2 is commonly adjusted in % from the fixed one. The
adjusted pO2 value has a lower and upper limit. The
difference between both these limits is usually 10% - 20%.
• Important parameters in pO2 control are the control limits of
the mixer's rotational speed n: nmin and nmax. It means
that, when controlling pO2, n will vary only within this range.
These limits are determined in connection with eliminating of
different undesirable phenomena:
• 1.7 Foam
• The appearance of foam is a very undesirable phenomenon,
since, in the course of its appearance, there is a risk to loose
an essential part of the fermentation broth. During the
foaming, it is not possible to perform high-quality analyses
and measurements. For elimination of foam, 2 methods or
their combinations are commonly used:
• Additional metering of an antifoam, based on the information
provided by the foam sensor. The given impulses are
relatively low, with long pauses and a limited metering time.
This additional control is necessary to avoid the possible
overdose, since, in this case, the mass exchange parameters
can decrease dramatically.
• Mechanical metering of foam. For this purpose, an upper
drive with a special disk-type or other type of the mechanical
foam breaking mixer is installed in the bioreactor's upper
cover. If an intensive foaming begins, then the mechanical
breaking of foam will not help any more.
• An optimal solution is the combination of both the
parameters. The application of Variant 1 is more widely
used in laboratory bioreactors.
THANK YOU!