As sparger production is produced and sintered with your required metal powder, it has the ability to handle the distinct condition of your specific application. During the operation process, a high-speed stream of aimed gas(like oxygen, carbon dioxide) is jetted through the pipe to the core part—sparger.

Due to the special sintering technology, sparger is endowed with thousands of pores. These pores are controlled in even and uniform size to allow gas to pass through. When sparger works, millions of fine bubbles are created to be seen. By fully contacting the target liquid, the gas is greatly dissolved into the liquid.

During the aerobic cultivation process in a bioreactor, the purpose of the sparger is to supply adequate oxygen to the growing cells.

Generally, the sparger is equipped at the bottom of the bioreactor. The purpose of the realization of a sparger is up to the tiny bubbles generated by the operation process. If the sparger is located at the bottom of the bioreactor, the contact area and reaction time between gas and liquid is increased as bubbles rise up to the surface of the liquid.

The design of an industrial sparger is really vital for the manufacturing process. Here are the basic steps of designing a sparger:

• Determine the suitable bubble size for your application. It directly influences the gas diffusion efficiency of your sparger.
• Know well about the pressure and flow parameters for process gas and liquid.
• The most important step in designing a sparger for the engineers is to calculate the required surface area for optimal gas exit velocity.
• The final step is to choose a proper connection type to fit your existing system.

If you still have problems, you are welcome to contact Filson for answers.

Sparger Location in a Bioreactor

Filson, with rich experience in the filtration field, has become one of the professional suppliers and manufacturers of spargers in China. We are now carrying a full range of spargers in different types and dimensions.

Here are the main types of our sparger:

• Sintered metal sparger/sintered sparger/porous sparger
• Stainless steel sparger(material can be changed according to your needs)
• Ring sparger
• Frit sparger
• Micro sparger
• Tank sparger
• Sparger in reactor
• Sparger in bioreactor/bioreactor sparger
• sparger in fermenter

Also, Filson provides replacement sparger of other leading brands, just send the specifications.

Filson Different Types of Sintered Sparger

Sparger is a vital device to support your applications. Equipping a high-efficiency and cost-effective will greatly improve the gas transfer rate and bring benefits as follows:

• The increased contact area between gas and liquid
• Reduced gas consumption for maximum cost savings
• Cleanable by both chemical and physical methods
• Less operation time for gas to dissolve into liquid
• Available to be applied to various environments
• High gas diffusion rate to benefit your application

Those are some advantages of using a sparger, more benefits are to be found by putting the sparger production into actual applications.

Fine Bubbles Created During Operation

Under normal conditions, Filson manufactures sintered metal spargers with stainless steel 304 or stainless steel 316L to suit most industrial applications. For many situations, 316L food-grade stainless steel is the most commonly used material to construct a sparger.

In addition, another grade of stainless steel (like 347 SS,430 SS) or higher metal alloys (like Inconel, Monel, Hastelloy) are also available to produce sparger. The selection of materials is mainly determined by the application or your special requirements.

Of course, it is cleanable and reusable. Correct and regular cleaning will help prolong the life of your sparger.

There are some practical methods for cleaning your sparger:

• Clean your spargers immediately after each use with a soft brush. Then rinse with plenty of clear distilled water.
• Boil your sparger with clean water for several minutes and then dry it naturally or flush it with clean air.
• You are recommended to regularly clean your sparger with 1M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and then rinse with demineralized water (DI).
• Soak your sparger in acid or other chemical solution to chemically react with the clogged particles. It is pretty helpful for long unused and severe congestion sparger.
• You can also try sonication, but this might have harm to the sintered powder production. So be careful when you choose the method and control the ultrasonic power and ultrasonic frequency.

By the way, it is necessary to clean your sparger before using or after a long time use. That’s because the micron holes on the surface of the sparger may be clogged with protein and if it’s not cleaned in time, the efficiency will be negatively influenced.

Cleaning of Sintered Metal Sparger

Choosing and designing the right sparger may be a challenge for most of you. If you make mistake in one of the links of calculating the sparger, you will finally get a wrong or failed sparger for your applications.

When choosing your sparger, pay attention to the following points:

• First, know well about the application details. You are going to use sparger for carbonating, controlling pH, oxygenating? What is the nature of liquid and gas? What are the working temperature, pressure, and flow rate of your system?
• Second, be clear about the actual volume of gas you desired to dissolve into the liquid per minute. You might consider it as the gas distribution efficiency you want to reach.
• Then, confirm the gas exit velocity. It must be a suitable value. If the bubbles get together rapidly, they will grow in size while reducing the contact area with process liquid resulting in less efficiency.
• Finally, determine the micron rating of your sparger. The micron rating, to some extent, decides the size and surface area of bubbles.

You can follow these tips to help you design and choose an ideal sparger to the needs of your application. The points listed above are just some of the most important factors, more detailed information and specifications can be told by consulting Filson professional specialists.