Simulación del proceso de fermentación en medio sólido con Aspergillus niger para el diseño de un biorreactor tipo lecho empacado de 200 litros

Abstract

Solid State Fermentation (SSF) is an alternative for obtaining metabolites of industrial interest. Despite the potential of FMS processes, there are factors that complicate their scaling, so in this work a simulation of the process with Aspergillus niger was carried out, in a 200-liter bioreactor. The design of the equipment was based on the modeling and simulation of the phenomena through mass and energy transfer within the system, which are described in terms of time and space. The mathematical model was validated through comparison with experimental results, using the root of the mean square error and the relative error, those cases with less error were selected for the bioreactor design. For the three cases with less relative error, the critical height of the bed was defined, which corresponds where the temperature causes difficulties in microbial growth. It was determined that, for the cases where the biomass obtained was higher, greater amounts of metabolic heat were produced, which generated difficulties in the cooling of the bed due to the reduction of spaces, product of microbial growth. The bioreactor design ends with the addition of aeration systems, the amount of which depends on the number of theoretical beds required to reach the critical height of the system. The additional aeration systems guarantee a working temperature below the critical temperature, as a consequence the process can be developed without difficulties.