CFD Simulation and optimization of an industrial tubular centrifuge for separation of diphtheria bacterial cells

When it comes to cells separation from culture media and harvesting a purified product, centrifugation can be a potential technique. Thus, this study is devoted to optimize the operational conditions of an industrial centrifuge to efficiently separate diphtheria bacterial cells from the culture medium using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation method. Multiphase Eulerian-Eulerian model coupled with Gidaspow drag and standard k-ε mixture turbulence models is used to quantify the complex hydrodynamics of the centrifuge and thus evaluate the efficiency of cells separation and possible cells damages under the centrifugal forces. Consequently, the rotational speed of ۱۵۰۰ rpm and feed flow rate of ۵۰ L h-۱ are recommended as the optimized operational conditions for such a centrifuge.

Keywords:

Tubular centrifuge , CFD , Bioseparation , Optimization.