Gas mass transfer in syngas fermentation broths is enhanced by ethanol

In gas fermentations (using O2, CO, H2, CH4 or CO2), gas-to-liquid mass transfer is often regarded as one of the limiting processes. However, it is widely known that components in fermentation broths (e.g., salts, biomass, proteins, antifoam, and organic products such as alcohols and acids) have tremendous impact on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient kLa. We studied the influence of ethanol on mass transfer in three fermentation broths derived from syngas fermentation. In demineralized water, we observed that the addition of ethanol, the expected product, increased kLa two-fold in the 0–5 g L−1 range, after which near-constant kLa values were obtained. In the fermentation broths, kLa was increased significantly (2–4 fold compared to water) by ethanol supplementation, and to be highly influenced by broth salinity. Our results indicate that kLa is a dynamic parameter in gas fermentation experiments and can be significantly increased due to broth components.