Fluidization of fungal pellets in a 3D-printed micro-fluidized bed

Micro-fluidized bed (MFB) can be used as a fast screening tool for preliminary testing of engineering designs, but the applications MFB bioprocessing research such microorganism cultivation is still deficient. This paper reports unique fluidization performance fungal pellets in 3D-printed micro-fluidized bed, thus giving insights to hydrodynamic study and broadening potential bioproduction fields. The results indicated that static voidage were substantially larger (around 0.6) than conventionally value 0.4. observed decrease packed with increasing pellet mass was attributed increased compaction pellets. A novel extended regime prior partially fully fluidized regimes liquid-solid fluidization. Due wall effect surface forces, higher values minimum velocity Richardson-Zaki empirical constants (n K) determined. In liquid-solid-gas system, including packed-bed regime, elutriation mapped. effects on gas flow weight also investigated. It noticed at low biomass (i.e. 0.5 g) increase led where height decreased flowrate. Pellet axial radial measured by PIVlab analysis. mainly affected vertical while dominated vortexes forces.