Enhancement of oxygen mass transfer in stirred bioreactors using oxygen-vectors 2. Propionibacterium shermanii broths.

The previous works on simulated broths are continued and developed for Propionibacterium shermanii broths. The obtained results indicated the considerable increase of kLa in presence of n-dodecane as oxygen-vector and the existence of a certain value of hydrocarbon concentration that corresponds to the maximum mass transfer rate of oxygen. The magnitude of the positive effect of the oxygen-vector strongly depends on operational conditions of the bioreactor, on broth characteristics and on P. shermanii concentration.