FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Is open vat fermentation really anaerobic?

Mark Lipton > wrote in news:e96dndhsOYjH7mDcRVn-
:

> Leo,
> While I have no particular knowledge about yeast metabolism, I doubt
> that there's much opportunity for aerobic respiration even in an open
> fermenter. The reason I suggest this is that the surface-to-volume
> ratio of something the size of a typical fermenter is so low that the
> rate of diffusion of oxygen into solution would be too low to have much
> effect on the yeast. Analogous situations arise in wine aging (e.g.,
> double magnum vs. half-bottle) and in industrial chemistry, where pilot
> plant workers can add very oxygen-sensitive pyrophores to 1000 L
> reactors in the open air because of the low surface-to-volume ratio.
>
> Mark Lipton
>

the CO2 tends to "hang over" the tanks as well creating somewhat of a
barrier.or so it was explained to me once upon a time.