Nicolas Nickel, M.Sc.


Eißendorfer Str. 38

Building O, Room 1.013

21073 Hamburg

Phone +49 40 42878 - 4332

Mail Nicolas Nickel


 
Research

Large Scale Bioreactors – Insight Into a Black Box

In bioprocess engineering, the production of antibody medicine by means of mammalian cell cultures is of great relevance. To ensure optimal cell growth conditions for high product qualities and efficiencies, the cells must continuously be supplied with nutrients and dissolved oxygen. During the entire process, a homogeneous mixing behavior have to be guaranteed, which can be achieved by applying bioreactors like stirred tank reactors. For a reliable design and scale up of the bioreactor, a profound understanding of hydrodynamics and mass transfer is required.

At the Institute of Multiphase Flows (IMS) at the Hamburg University of Technology various studies have been performed to study the influence of different operation conditions as well as stirrer geometries on mass transfer performance, power input and mixing efficiency on laboratory scale (3 L) over pilot-scale (30 L) to industrial scale (15,000 L). This work gives deep insights into the hydrodynamic behavior and a characterization of an industrial scale aerated stirred tank reactor.

Education

Teaching Assistant

  • Grundlagen der Strömungsmechanik (Summer Semester 2025)

  • Reactor Design Using Local Transport Processes (Winter Semester 2024/25) 

  • Grundlagen der Strömungsmechanik (Summer Semester 2024)

  • Reactor Design Using Local Transport Processes (Winter Semester 2023/24) 

Publications

[192063]
Title: Novel sparging strategies to enhance dissolved carbon dioxide stripping in industrial scale stirred tank reactors.
Written by: Nickel, N.; Fitschen, J., Haase, I.; Kuschel, M.; Schulz, T.W.; Wucherpfennig, T.; Schlüter, M.
in: <em>Front. Chem. Eng. Sec. Biochemical Engineering</em>. November (2024).
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DOI: 10.3389/fceng.2024.1470991
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Abstract: Aerated stirred tank reactors are widely used in bio-process engineering and pharmaceutical industries. To supply the organisms with oxygen and control the pH value, oxygen is transferred from air bubbles into the liquid phase, and, at the same time, carbon dioxide is stripped from the liquid phase with the same gas bubbles. The volumetric mass transfer coefficients for oxygen and carbon dioxide are, therefore, of crucial importance for the design and scale-up of aerated stirred tank reactors. In this experimental work, the volumetric mass transfer coefficients for oxygen and carbon dioxide are investigated simultaneously to study their mutual influence. The mass transfer performance for oxygen and carbon dioxide is conducted in stirred tank reactors on the 3 L laboratory scale, 30 L pilot scale, and 15,000 L production scale. First, the influence of dissolved carbon dioxide on the oxygen mass transfer performance is investigated in a 30 L pilot scale stirred tank reactor. The results show that the volumetric mass transfer coefficient of oxygen is not affected by the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide, but the total mass flux of oxygen decreases with increasing carbon dioxide concentration due to the decreasing partial pressure difference. With rising gassing rate and volumetric power input, both mass transfer coefficients for oxygen and carbon dioxide show the same increasing trend. Although this trend can also be observed when scaling down to the 3 L laboratory scale reactor, a significantly different effect must be considered for the scale-up to the 15,000 L industrial scale reactor. The limited absorption capacity for carbon dioxide of the gas bubbles during the long residence time in the industrial scale reactor is noticeable here, which is why the specific interfacial area is of negligible importance. This effect is used to develop a method for independent control of oxygen and carbon dioxide mass transfer performance on an industrial scale and to increase the mass transfer performance for carbon dioxide by up to 25%.