Bioprocesses Development Using Batch Processes Simulation - Application Examples with BatchReactor

Process simulation is widely used by process engineers in the design of new units as well as in operations of existing plants for process optimization, units troubleshooting or debottlenecking, plants revamping, performing front-end engineering analysis… It is used in nearly all process industries: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, oil and gas, refining, specialty chemicals… However, bio-industries still do not use intensively process simulation. In these industries, microorganisms (fermentation), enzymatic reactions or reactive transformation of the plant material are involved. They are characterized by a great complexity of the raw material and the phenomena which are taking place in reactive unit operations. The number of components (often non-exhaustive for a plant material) and the number of reactions (several thousand for a given microorganism) limit the number of robust reactional models available in literature. As they most often operate in batch mode, bio-reactions are rarely present and used in process simulation software.

BatchReactor® is a software dedicated to the simulation of batch chemical reactors [1], which provides the user with a detailed modeling of the reactor (heating/cooling system, condenser, mixing device…) and a reliable description of the production recipe. BatchReactor® allows modeling of complex systems by taking advantage of the power of Simulis® Thermodynamics (thermodynamic properties server) which offers an extensive set of thermodynamic models with a pure components database of more than 2,000 pure components (AIChE’s DIPPR® database [2]). Additional new components can be easily added in the database as, for example, microorganisms represented with a CHONPS formula. Moreover, thanks to the user “interpreted” kinetic rate model available through Simulis® Reaction (chemical reaction server), any kind of specific kinetic models can be used in BatchReactor®. This is essential to represent kinetic bio-reactions with often non-classical laws [3]. So, in BatchReactor®, a stoichio-kinetic model can be coupled with thermodynamic and heat transfer models already available in the software to simulate the bio-reactor.

Several applications from various industries have been successfully simulated: food industry (tomato juice oxidation, brewing of beer, alcohol fermentation), pharmaceutical (production of thiolutin) and white biotechnology (production of polyhydroxybutyrate). A stoichio-kinetic model was necessary for all these applications but, once it was known, the strengths of a BatchReactor simulation appeared: accurate thermodynamic and transfer phenomena representation, recipe description, user-friendly interface.

References

[1] www.prosim.net

[2] R.L. Rowley, W.V. Wilding, J.L. Oscarson, N.F. Giles, DIPPR® Data Compilation of Pure Chemical Properties, Design Institute for Physical Properties, AIChE, New York, NY (2011)

[3] Ramon Portugal F., Fillon M., Meyer X.M., Pingaud H., Strehiano P., I.S.B.N. 2-87805-022-3, 159- 170 (1997)