In this work, the
driving force of interfacial mass transfer is
modeled as deviation from the gas–liquid equilibrium, which
by assumption is thought to exist at the interface separating the
gas and liquid phases. The proposed mass transfer model provides a
flexible framework where the phase equilibrium description in the
driving force can be substituted without difficulties, allowing the
mass transfer modeling of distillation, absorption/stripping, extraction,
evaporation, and condensation to be based on a thermodynamically consistent
phase equilibrium formulation. Phase equilibrium by the Soave–Redlich–Kwong
equation of state (SRK-EoS) is in this work compared to the results
of the classical Henry’s law approach. The new model formulation
can predict mass transfer of the solvent, which Henry’s law
cannot. The mass transfer models were evaluated by simulating a single-cell
protein process operated in a bubble column bioreactor, and the solubilities
computed from the SRK-EoS and Henry’s law were in qualitative
agreement, albeit in quantitative disagreement. At the reactor inlet,
the solubility of O2 and CH4 was 150% higher
with the SRK-EoS than with Henry’s law. Furthermore, the SRK-EoS
was computationally more expensive and spent 10% more time than Henry’s
law.