{"id":3492,"date":"2024-05-28T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:00:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:00:43","slug":"mechanical-mixing-what-it-is-and-why-its-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/mechanical-mixing-what-it-is-and-why-its-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanical Mixing: what it is and why it&#8217;s key"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mechanical mixing is foundational to the efficient and effective running of&nbsp;bioindustrial&nbsp;processes,&nbsp;ensuring&nbsp;the maximisation of yields and&nbsp;productivity.&nbsp;Whether focusing on enhancing&nbsp;product formation&nbsp;or&nbsp;minimising&nbsp;energy consumption, ensuring the right&nbsp;configuration&nbsp;of mechanical mixing is mission\u2013critical.&nbsp;Two examples&nbsp;of stirred bioreactors&nbsp;are shown in Figure 1.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.modela.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Diapositiva2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3428\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Figure&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Examples&nbsp;of&nbsp;CFD domains for&nbsp;bioreactors with&nbsp;different&nbsp;types&nbsp;of&nbsp;mechanical mixers.&nbsp;(a)&nbsp;anaerobic digester with&nbsp;horizontal propeller&nbsp;and (b)&nbsp;fermenter&nbsp;with&nbsp;vertical&nbsp;dual flat blade&nbsp;turbine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to various industries, mechanical mixing is critical for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 Bio process performance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Efficient mechanical mixing ensures optimal contact between microorganisms and substrate without excesive stress by shear, promoting their growth and\/or biochemical activity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rapid mixing is fundamental to processes such as disinfection and flocculation in wastewater treatment plants. However, the right trade-off with energy consumption minimisation must be found for sustainability and profitability purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 Temperature control<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mechanical mixing helps to mantain homogeneous temperature profiles in bioreactors, ensuring consistent and favourable conditions for microorganisms to thrive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 Reduced maintenance costs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Proper mechanical mixing helps to minimise the precipitation of solids, reducing the mainteneance costs associated with plant power down for bioreactors cleaning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 Process stability<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>By maintaining stable mixing, key parameters such as pH levels can be better controlled, optimising conditions for stable microorganism\u2019s activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)&nbsp;allows us to simulate gas and liquid behaviour within complex&nbsp;stirred&nbsp;systems such as&nbsp;bioreactors, so that we can analyse&nbsp;the&nbsp;fluid behaviour,&nbsp;flow patterns and the distribution of nutrients and microorganisms.&nbsp;Figure 2 illustrates&nbsp;a few&nbsp;examples.&nbsp;The retrieved information serves as an input to decision-making to reduce CAPEX and OPEX&nbsp;spending.&nbsp;It also provides crucial data that can support&nbsp;industrial plants&nbsp;in achieving their environmental sustainability goals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.modela.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Diapositiva3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3429\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Figure 2.&nbsp;Examples&nbsp;of CFD simulations of stirred bioreactors. (a) Prediction of surface vortex formation; (b)&nbsp;characterisation&nbsp;of flow patterns;&nbsp;and (c) profile of&nbsp;species&nbsp;concentration over time and space.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CFD also allows us to&nbsp;predict, characterise and measure how the mechanical mixing is&nbsp;operating&nbsp;within these systems,&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;continually pursue a&nbsp;more effective and more efficient process.&nbsp;Reaching a&nbsp;(pseudo)&nbsp;steady state&nbsp;with minimal dead zones&nbsp;is a&nbsp;desired condition&nbsp;in most&nbsp;bioprocesses. Implementing a virtual sensor&nbsp;(also&nbsp;known as&nbsp;soft sensor)&nbsp;within the&nbsp;simulation&nbsp;allows us to&nbsp;monitor&nbsp;the evolution of a particular variable, such as velocity, and precisely&nbsp;determine&nbsp;when the system is well-mixed and homogeneous.&nbsp;Figure 3&nbsp;illustrates the use&nbsp;of&nbsp;CFD for mixing quality monitoring.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.modela.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Diapositiva4-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3430\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Figure 3. Use of CFD simulations as soft sensors in stirred bioreactors. The diagrams show virtual monitoring of&nbsp;(a) dead zones based on the&nbsp;volumetric&nbsp;distribution of the&nbsp;velocity&nbsp;magnitude,&nbsp;and&nbsp;(b)&nbsp;steady state&nbsp;based on&nbsp;the&nbsp;stability&nbsp;of velocity&nbsp;at&nbsp;points&nbsp;far&nbsp;away from the impeller.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, mechanical mixing is a core tool in the management of bioprocesses, enabling industrial plants to rapidly enhance yields and reduce costs. And CFD modelling enables us to optimise it, reducing costs and risks.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019d like to know more about how we can support you in optimising processes and enhancing your economic and environmental sustainability, send us a note&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.modela.co.uk\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mechanical mixing is foundational to the efficient and effective running of&nbsp;bioindustrial&nbsp;processes,&nbsp;ensuring&nbsp;the maximisation of yields and&nbsp;productivity.&nbsp;Whether focusing on enhancing&nbsp;product formation&nbsp;or&nbsp;minimising&nbsp;energy consumption, ensuring the right&nbsp;configuration&nbsp;of mechanical mixing is mission\u2013critical.&nbsp;Two examples&nbsp;of stirred bioreactors&nbsp;are shown in Figure 1.&nbsp;&nbsp; Figure&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Examples&nbsp;of&nbsp;CFD domains for&nbsp;bioreactors with&nbsp;different&nbsp;types&nbsp;of&nbsp;mechanical mixers.&nbsp;(a)&nbsp;anaerobic digester with&nbsp;horizontal propeller&nbsp;and (b)&nbsp;fermenter&nbsp;with&nbsp;vertical&nbsp;dual flat blade&nbsp;turbine. According to various industries, mechanical mixing is critical for: \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3493,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions\/3493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.antudigital.cl\/sites\/modelacfd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}