| Abstract: | Unlimited foam formation and insufficient foam collapse can have serious effects in an aerated system such as a fermentation process. Mechanical foam breakers are used in foam control to avoid the drawbacks associated with the use of chemical antifoams and defoaming agents. In this paper, two new foam breakers consisting of a two‐blade paddle with three slits, and a two‐blade paddle with 168 thin needles have been tested. They gave significantly reduced critical speeds and power consumption for foam control in a stirred vessel, compared with some conventional foam breakers. The effects of various parameters, namely the physical properties of the foaming solution, type of gas sparger, surfactant concentration, and foam‐breaker clearance above liquid level, have been investigated. The degree of difficulty of controlling dynamic foams generated continuously in a stirred vessel is found to be a function of the nature of the foam, ie its bubble size, its liquid holdup, and the degree of foamability of the system. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry |
