Disclosed herein are bioreactors that include a vessel with sides and a bottom, at least one opening in the vessel connected to a means for introducing a gas, and at least one scaffold in the vessel oriented substantially vertically in the vessel. The scaffolds are two substantially parallel sheets that are separated by a distance (d.sub.min). Also disclosed herein are bioreactors that include a vessel with sides and a bottom, at least one opening in the vessel connected to a means for introducing a gas, and at least two scaffolds in the vessel oriented substantially vertically in the vessel. The disclosure also includes methods of culturing cells including incubating a suspension of cells in a disclosed bioreactor and introducing a gas through the at least one opening in the vessel. In some examples, the cells include microalgae, macroalgae, bacteria, fungi, insect cells, plant cells, or animal cells.

The present disclosure generally relates to a method for controlled pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. The method comprises the steps of: Pretreating (S10) a lignocellulosic biomass material in a pretreatment arrangement, the pretreating comprising impregnating (S10A) the lignocellulosic biomass with an SO2 feed in an impregnation vessel of the pretreatment arrangement; collecting (S20) a number of process parameters of the pretreatment, which process parameters include at least a feed parameter related to the total amount of lignocellulosic biomass input to the pretreatment arrangement, and a dry matter parameter related to the dry matter content of lignocellulosic biomass input to the pretreatment arrangement; and adjusting (S30) the SO2 feed in response to the process parameters.

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.

An aerosolization device for an aerosol wetting chamber comprising a receiving opening for receiving the aerosolization device and adapted for wetting samples disposed in the aerosol wetting chamber with aerosol, the aerosolization device comprising a main body, an aerosol deflector and a swirling device.

The present invention relates to a reaction device with air-lift type internal circulation which includes: a vertical cylindrical volume (1), more than one draft tube vertical element (2) positioned within the cylindrical volume (1) in such a manner as to form an gap with the walls of said volume, more than one gas distributor (3), each of which is positioned on the bottom of said device; wherein: each vertical internal element (2) has an internal diameter which increases along the vertical axis of said element, and the ratio between the total height of the reaction device and the internal diameter of the reaction device is less than 1.

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 fermenter can have at least one hollow fluid conduit disposed at least partially within a vessel. An external circumference of the hollow fluid conduit and an interior circumference of the vessel can define a downward flow path through which a multi-phase mixture including a liquid media and compressed gas substrate bubbles flows. An interior circumference of the hollow fluid conduit can defined an upward flow path which is in fluid communication with the downward flow path. The multi-phase liquid can flow through the upward flow path and exit the fermenter. Cooling may be provided in the hollow fluid conduit or the vessel. One or more backpressor generators can be used to maintain a backpressure on the fermenter. One or more fluid movers can be used to variously create an induced and/or forced flow in the downward and upward flow paths.

Disclosed is a method for synthesizing diglyceride using a bubble column reactor. The method comprises the steps of: an immobilized enzyme is placed on the bearing mechanism of the bubble column reactor; a hot bath mechanism is actuated to heat the reactor body to 55-75° C.; glycerol, fatty acid and water are added into a feed chute, preheated to 55-75° C., and then transferred into the reactor body to initiate the reaction; a bubbling mechanism is actuated so that the inert gas is continuously blown into the reactor body via a sieve plate, forming boiling-like bubbles which promotes the mixing and hence to facilitate the reaction; after the reaction, the water bath mechanism and the bubbling mechanism are turned off, the heating and the inert gas circulation are stopped, a compacting mechanism is actuated, and the reaction mixture is settled and layered, thus obtaining an upper layer which is the crude glyceride layer, and a lower layer which is the glycerol layer; and the crude glyceride layer is subjected to two-stage molecular distillation so as to obtain high purity diglyceride.

A bioreactor is provided that includes a main reactor having a configuration selected from the group consisting of stirred and unstirred tank reactor, trickle bed reactor (TBR), cocurrent contactor (CCC), moving bed bioreactor (MBBR), and a bubble column reactor. The bioreactor also includes a growth reactor continuous with the main reactor and having a configuration selected from the group consisting of stirred and unstirred tank reactor, trickle bed reactor (TBR), cocurrent contactor (CCC), moving bed bioreactor (MBBR), and a bubble column reactor. A method is also provided where acetogenic bacteria are contacted with syngas in a growth fermentor section of a reactor vessel that is continuous with a main fermentor section of a reactor vessel.

The invention described herein presents compositions and methods for a multistep biological and chemical process for the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide and/or other forms of inorganic carbon into organic chemicals including biofuels or other useful industrial, chemical, pharmaceutical, or biomass products. One or more process steps utilizes chemoautotrophic microorganisms to fix inorganic carbon into organic compounds through chemosynthesis. An additional feature described are process steps whereby electron donors used for the chemosynthetic fixation of carbon are generated by chemical or electrochemical means, or are produced from inorganic or waste sources. An additional feature described are process steps for recovery of useful chemicals produced by the carbon dioxide capture and conversion process, both from chemosynthetic reaction steps, as well as from non-biological reaction steps.