Process for preparing biomass attached to a carrier

Abstract

Abstract A granular carrier is contacted in a reaction space with a continuous stream of liquid which contains a sufficiently wide flora of microorganisms and sufficient nutrients for the growth and /or preservation of the microorganisms until a sufficiently thick layer of microorganisms is attached to the carrier, while in the liquid 0.1-1.5 kW of mechanical energy per m<3> of reactor liquid, is dissipated at least partly in the form of gas bubbling through the liquid and the residence time of the liquid in the reaction space is kept lower than the reciprocal maximum growth rate of the microorganisms. More preferably an aerobic biomass attached to a carrier is produced, by applying liquids, wherein the growth rate is not limited by the concentration of nutrients and by adjusting a residence time of the liquid in the reactor of below 45 minutes. <??>The process can be applied for the production of all kinds of biomass attached to a carrier, e.g. biomasses as are applied in the biological purification of waste-water, aerobic biomass, anaerobic biomass, nitrificating biomass and denitrificating biomass, as well as biomasses forming a desired metabolic product which inhibits its own production rate at higher concentrations, e.g. biomass for the production of alcohol.

Inventors

• 👤 Joseph Johannes Heijnen

Bibliographic Details