Systems and methods for treating media in large-scale bioreactors can include a method of using a large-scale bioreactor system. The method can include (a) mixing a mixture of at least cells, and media in a bioreactor, and (b) removing a portion of the media through an output port of the bioreactor. The method can also include (c) retaining the cells within the bioreactor using a screen covering the port. The method can also include (d) receiving a second media, which may in some examples include the portion of the first media removed from the bioreactor, into a media preparation container external to the bioreactor, (e) treating the second media within the media preparation container to produce oxygenated media within a threshold pH range, and (f) introducing the oxygenated media into the bioreactor using a return port of the bioreactor.

Compositions and methods for a hybrid biological and chemical process that captures and converts carbon dioxide and/or other forms of inorganic carbon and/or CI carbon sources including but not limited to carbon monoxide, methane, methanol, formate, or formic acid, and/or mixtures containing CI chemicals including but not limited to various syngas compositions, into organic chemicals including biofuels or other valuable biomass, chemical, industrial, or pharmaceutical products are provided. The present invention, in certain embodiments, fixes inorganic carbon or CI carbon sources into longer carbon chain organic chemicals by utilizing microorganisms capable of performing the oxyhydrogen reaction and the autotrophic fixation of CO.sub.2 in one or more steps of the process.

The present invention provides a system and a method for enhancing mass transfer of a gas between a gaseous medium and a liquid medium in reactions involving such a mass transfer, and for effective mixing of the liquid medium.

Proposed is a method for CO.sub.2-free waste gas fermentation using microbial strains, and the method is capable of maximizing a consumption rate of gaseous substrates by additionally injecting methanol during a fermentation process of the microbial strains, and converting CO.sub.2, a greenhouse gas, generated during the fermentation process into hydrocarbon products therethrough. The method may comprise: 1) injecting microbial strains into a bioreactor; and 2) injecting gaseous substrates and methanol into the bioreactor, and converting the gaseous substrates and the methanol into hydrocarbon products through fermentation of the microbial strains, wherein all CO.sub.2 present inside the bioreactor is consumed and converted into hydrocarbon products.

The present invention relates to a reaction device with air-lift type internal circulation which includes:a vertical cylindrical volume;a vertical element positioned within said volume in such a way as to form an interspace with the walls of said volume, having a cross-section which is circular and orthogonal to the vertical axis of the element and with a variable internal diameter along said axis, said element being denoted draft tube;at least one gas distributor positioned on the bottom of said device; said device being characterised in that:the ratio between the diameter of the internal vertical element and the internal diameter of the cylindrical volume ranges from 0.05 to 0.5, andthe ratio between the height of the vertical element and the height of the cylindrical volume is less than 0.5.

A multi-wavelength laser diode based optical sensor system capable of monitoring the dynamics and physiological changes of a microorganism culture in real-time. The microorganism culture from a microorganism production chamber is pumped to a flow chamber. Laser diodes emit light at certain wavelengths through the flow chamber, which is sensed by photodiodes. A laser control circuitry is operatively connected to the laser diodes and a signal conditioning circuitry is operatively connected to the photodiodes. A microprocessor reads and records voltage signals corresponding to the wavelengths. A data acquisition system converts said voltage signals into measurements of biological parameters, which are displayed on a graphical user interface and allow a user to monitor the measurements in real time.

A process and apparatus is provided which are effective for improving CO mass transfer. The process includes introducing syngas into a reactor vessel through a gas sparger located below a liquid level in the reactor vessel. The syngas being introduced at a flow rate effective for maintaining a pressure inside of the reactor vessel of at least about 1 psig. An agitation energy of about 0.01 to about 12 kWatts/m.sup.3 medium is provided. The process is effective for providing a volumetric CO mass transfer coefficient of about 100 to about 1500 per hour.

The present invention discloses an airlift reactor assembly with a helical sieve plate, comprising a reaction tank, wherein a draft tube and a gas sparger are assembled in the reaction tank, the gas sparger is arranged just below an riser section of the draft tube, a helical sieve plate is arranged in the riser section of the draft tube, and a body of the helical sieve plate is helical upwards to guide a part of two/three-phase flow in the riser section, and the body of the helical sieve plate is provided with a plurality of sieve meshes to guide the remaining two/three-phase go through the helical sieve plate in the riser section and to break bubbles. The present invention gives consideration to both macroscopic mixing and microscopic mixing processes. In addition to driving liquid to circularly flow by using ejected gas, the helical sieve plate can be used for breaking large bubbles into small bubbles thereby effectively preventing the bubbles from coalescing, increasing gas holdup and increasing a volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient.

Provided is a culture device including: a culture chamber that accommodates a culture; a first vapor supplier that supplies vapor to the culture chamber by natural vaporization; a second vapor supplier that supplies vapor to the culture chamber by forced vaporization; a humidity sensor that detects humidity in the culture chamber; and a control device that operates the first vapor supplier and the second vapor supplier to humidify the culture chamber such that the humidity in the culture chamber becomes a target value. After the first vapor supplier and the second vapor supplier humidify the culture chamber until the humidity in the culture chamber becomes a determination value, the control device stops the second vapor supplier, and operates the first vapor supplier to humidify the culture chamber until the humidity in the culture chamber becomes the target value.

The technology described herein is directed to systems and methods for producing a bioproduct from microorganisms such as bacteria. The system can comprise a growth phase and a production phase, that can occur in the same or different bioreactor chambers; the growth phase can use using gas fermentation or mixotrophic fermentation, and the production phase can use gas fermentation, mixotrophic fermentation, or organic carbon fermentation. In one example, the system can comprise at least one primary reactor chamber using gas fermentation or mixotrophic fermentation and at least one secondary reactor chamber using gas fermentation, mixotrophic fermentation, or organic carbon fermentation. Such systems can use bacteria that are capable of both autotrophy and heterotrophy and capable of switching between autotrophy and heterotrophy.