The dynamic behaviour of aerated continuous flow stirred tank bioreactor

The dynamics of continuous stirred tank bioreactors (CSTB), in which microbial growth is subjected to gaseous substrate limitation, is analysed. The growth process is supposed to obey the classical model proposed by Monod for substrate limitation, or the hump exponential model, which considers the occurrence of both substrate limitation and inhibition. The yield coefficient is supposed to be a linear function of substrate concentration. The influence of mass transfer on the system behaviour is considered. The developments produced here are shown to include the particular case of a nongaseous limiting substrate, identified in a previous study [1]. Besides the purely analytical results, numerical bifurcation diagrams and phase portraits are given to show the influence of the system parameters on the bioreactor behaviour.