Development of an Aerated High-Pressure Reactor for Biotechnological Applications

This dataset is supplementary material to the dissertation titled: "Development of an Aerated High-Pressure Reactor for Biotechnological Applications". It includes the raw data from this study, the processed data, the corresponding MATLAB scripts, and the figures presented in the dissertation.

Abstract: A key element in the development of sustainable chemical products is the biotechnologization of chemical synthesis processes. One approach to intensifying biotechnological processes to make them competitive with established synthesis methods involves utilizing the process parameter of pressure. This is particularly of interest for enzymatically catalyzed oxidation reactions, which often face limitations due to low oxygen solubility, resulting in mass transport limitations.

This work presents and characterizes an aerated high-pressure batch reactor designed for the investigation of enzymatic systems at laboratory scale up to a pressure of 15.0 MPa. The characterisation is divided into three parts: Firstly, the use of optical sensors for online measurement of dissolved oxygen concentration under pressure is considered. Showing that the optical sensors used can reliably measure an oxygen concentration of up to 227 mg l−1 even under significant pressure fluctuations. The second section deals with the characterisation of mass transfer in the used high-pressure bubble column. Through optical access to the bubble column, the bubble size distribution is measured, and essential factors for mass transport, such as gas hold-up and interfacial area for mass transfer, are determined, highlighting in particular the influence of pressure on bubble diameter. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient is also determined using optical sensors.

In the context of validation experiments, the results of the preceding sections are combined, and the functionality of the setup with immobilized glucose oxidase is demonstrated. It is shown that the reaction can be monitored using optical sensors and that process intensification can be achieved through increased oxygen availability. It also becomes evident that the mass transport performance of the used bubble column is not sufficient to circumvent mass transport limitation. Based on these results, a scaled-up reactor concept of 2 liters is finally presented, based on a compact and high-performance jet loop reactor.