Bioprocess Engineering 2nd Edition by Fikret Kargi,Michael Shuler

Exercise 1

8 Glucose is converted to ethanol by immobilized yeast cells entrapped in gel beads. The spe-
cific rate of ethanol production is: ethanol/g-cell-h. The effectiveness factor for an
average bead is 0.8. Each bead contains 50 g/L of cells. The voids volume in the column is
40%. Assume growth is negligible (all glucose is converted into ethanol). The feed flow rate
is F = 400 l/h and glucose concentration in the feed is glucose/l. The diameter of
the column is 1 m and the yield coefficient is about 0.49 g ethanol/g glucose. The column
height is 4 m.
a. What is the glucose conversion at the exit of the column?
b. What is the ethanol concentration in the exit stream?