Fluid Flow Modeling in a Bioreactor Applied to Wine Production

C. Soares [1], N. Padoin [1], P. M. Aballay [2], O. A. Ortiz [2],
[1] Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
[2] Universidad Nacional de San Juan, San Juan, Argentina
Published in 2015

Wine quality is strongly dependent on the operation parameters of the production process. In batch or fed batch reactors, the rotating velocity should be carefully controlled to avoid cellular stress and ensure adequate mixing of the mixture. Moreover, precise control of substrates concentration evolution and cellular growth, as well as efficient heat transfer, allows the production of high quality varietal wines. Modeling can be applied in all steps of the wine production process for the design of the equipment, definition of operation ranges and optimization of new and existing facilities. In this work, the COMSOL Multiphysics® software was applied for fluid flow modeling in a multipurpose fermenter in order to assess its performance for varietal wine production in San Juan province, Argentina.