Bioprocess Engineering 2nd Edition by Fikret Kargi,Michael Shuler

Exercise 15

Ethanol is to be used as a substrate for single-cell protein production in a chemostat. The
available equipment can achieve an oxygen transfer rate of 10 g of liquid per hour. As-
sume the kinetics of cell growth on ethanol is of the Monod type, with cells/g ethanol, and We wish to operate the chemostat
with an ethanol concentration in the feed of 22 g/L. We also wish to maximize the biomass
productivity and minimize the loss of unused ethanol in the effluent. Determine the required
dilution rate and whether sufficient oxygen can be provided.