The present invention concerns a stirrer system for animal cell culture consisting of a combination of at least one radially-conveying stirrer element and at least one axially-conveying stirrer element, wherein at least three stirrer elements must be present and the uppermost stirrer element is an axially-conveying stirrer element. The stirrer elements are arranged at a certain distance above one another on a stirrer shaft. A particular embodiment is a multiple stirrer system consisting of two disk stirrers as radially-conveying stirrer elements and an inclined-blade stirrer as an axially-conveying stirrer element wherein the inclined-blade stirrer is arranged above the disk stirrer on the stirrer shaft. The stirrer system according to the invention achieves among others a gentler and better intermixing in the culture of shear-sensitive mammalian cells in cell cultures.

The problem of providing a stirrer capable of more effectively shearing a fluid to be treated is addressed, by using the action of an intermittent jet stream. A stirrer is provided with a rotor having a blade and a screen, which are relatively rotated such that the fluid to be treated is discharged from the inside of the screen to the outside as an intermittent jet stream through a slit in the screen, the stirrer satisfying condition 1 and condition 2. (Condition 1) the relationship among the width b in the rotating direction of a tip part of the blade, the width s in the circumferential direction of the slit, and the width t in the circumferential direction of the screen member is b2s+t. (Condition 2) the relationship between the width b in the rotating direction of the tip part of the blade and the maximum inner diameter c of the screen is b0.1c.

A stirrer includes a stirring shaft; a plurality of mixing wings extending from the lower end of the stirring shaft and spaced from each other around the stirring shaft; and a conical hub connecting the lower ends of the mixing wings.

Hydrophobic particles such as coal and hydrophobized mineral fines can be readily separated from hydrophilic impurities by forming agglomerates in water using a hydrophobic liquids such as oil. The agglomerates of hydrophobic particles usually entrap large amounts of water, causing the moisture of the recovered hydrophobic particles to be excessively high. This problem can be overcome by dispersing the hydrophobic agglomerates in a hydrophobic liquid that can be readily recycled. The dispersion can be achieved using specially designed apparatus and methods that can create a turbulence that can help destabilize the agglomerates in a recyclable hydrophobic liquid and facilitate the dispersion.

A vacuum deaerator degasses material to be processed by placing a rotating rotor with a screen in a vacuum vessel, introducing a liquid material to be processed into the rotor from the interior thereof and causing the liquid to pass through the screen to refine the same. The vacuum deaerator is characterized in that: the screen is a cylinder with a circular cross-section and is in the form of a porous plate in which a plurality of through holes are opened in the radial direction of the cylindrical screen; and the screen is provided such that the area of inflow openings is greater than the area of outflow openings, where the inflow openings are openings of a plurality of penetration portions provided on the inner wall face of the screen and the outflow openings are openings of the plurality of penetration portions provided on the outer wall dace of the screen. Thus, the processing capacity of the vacuum deaerator is improved without increasing the size of the device.

A mixer and method for mixing are provided. The mixer includes a housing including a fluid inlet, an additive inlet, and an outlet. The housing defines a mixing chamber in fluid communication with the fluid inlet, the additive inlet, and the outlet. The mixer also includes an impeller disposed in the mixing chamber. When rotated, the impeller pumps fluid through the fluid inlet. The mixer also includes a slinger disposed in the mixing chamber and configured to receive the fluid from the impeller and to receive an additive from the additive inlet. When rotated, the slinger slings the fluid and the additive radially outwards. The mixer further includes a flush line extending between the mixing chamber and the additive inlet. The flush line is receives, from the mixing chamber, a portion of the fluid pumped by the impeller and to deliver the portion of the fluid to the additive inlet.

A mixing unit has a stacked member having mixing elements that are stacked in a stacking direction and that extend in an extending direction, a first plate, and a second plate disposed opposite the first plate. The stacked member is sandwiched between the first plate and the second plate. Each of the mixing elements has first through holes. The second plate comprises an opening portion that communicates with the first through holes in the stacked member.

A steam stripping apparatus is provided that prevents adherence of crumbs to an inner wall of a crumbing tank, pipe blockages caused by reaggregated large particle size crumbs, clogging of a screen by small particle size crumbs, and slipping in an extruder, and which can operate over a long period of time. The crumbing tank includes a stir shaft and an impeller, and also has a baffle plate on an inner wall face. The impeller has a knife blade. The baffle plate has an approximately triangular cross-sectional shape having, on a cross section in a cylindrical lateral direction of the crumbing tank, a side face on each of an upstream side and a downstream side with respect to a flow direction of a fluid, and in which the upstream-side side face and the downstream-side side face meet to form an intersection point.

With a method for digesting starch, an aqueous slurry of the starch is treated with steam in a cooking vessel and in this case exposed to shear forces, wherein the starch-containing slurry is heated to a temperature of between 85C and 110C in the cooking vessel by introducing steam, and the digestion step is implemented until the desired degree of digestion has been reached. Also described is a cooking vessel that can be used when the method for digesting starch is being carried out.

A reactor arrangement for performing, by means of at least one solid reaction member(s), a biological or chemical transformation, or physical or chemical trapping from, or release of agents to, a fluidic media in a continuous process. The arrangement comprises at least one reactor with a cylindrical reaction vessel (11) in which at least one reactor a transformation device (100) has been mounted. The vessel (11) comprises at least one inlet port (30) in the vicinity of its bottom wall (18) and at least one outlet port (40) arranged in the vicinity of its upper end portion. Each inlet port (30) is connected to a fluid supply member (300) configured to be submerged below the fluid surface level in a pool or a pond. The fluid supply member (300) comprises at least one inlet opening (301) configured to continuously supply a fluid from the pool or the pond to the vessel (11). Each outlet port (40) is configured to continuously let out the fluid from the vessel (11) to the pool or the pond via the outlet port (40). Further a method of using the reactor arrangement is provided.