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Large-Scale Reactor Optimization
Large production vessels are hard to measure, so Bolt computes mixing, gas dispersion and power input for them.
SimVantage Bolt.
Advanced reactor modeling for industrial bioprocesses.
SimVantage Bolt is our GPU-based Lattice Boltzmann solver for evaluating transient hydrodynamics, mass transfer and process performance across scales. Ready to use on our managed cloud or your own hardware.
Simulations
Understand reactor behavior before implementation.
You watch the flow develop while the solver is still running, so you see what happens in the tank without waiting for the end of the run. Bolt computes transient 3D flow, free surfaces, and heat and mass transfer.
Vortex PredictionCase Study →
Capabilities
Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann Solver
Bolt is built for bioprocesses, and the same solver also handles industrial mixing, chemical and food processes, piping and HVAC.
Flow Physics
- 3D transient fluid flowLattice Boltzmann method
- Local grid refinementFiner resolution where the flow needs it
- Liquid interfacesFree surface and vortex prediction
- Aeration and particlesEuler-Lagrange multiphysics
- Dispersed immiscible phasesPopulation balance methods
- Porous zones
Geometry & Motion
- CAD importSTL and STEP files
- Built-in primitivesBuild geometries directly in Bolt
- Moving bodiesShaking, rotating, free-floating or along arbitrary trajectories
- Deforming bodies
- Continuous reactors
Analysis Examples
- Mixing time
- Power measurement
- Flow statistics
- Lifeline statistics
- kLa (oxygen transfer)
- Holdup
- Just-suspended speed Njs
- And many more
Access & Extensibility
- Web-based user interfaceTerminal access optional
- Python / Julia APIThe most advanced API and scripting capabilities, incl. on-device access
- User-defined functions
Demos
From Geometry to Result in One Interface
Applications
Example Use Cases
Because Bolt computes the flow in your actual geometry, the results describe your reactor. Engineering teams use them to answer questions like these before they commit to a design or a change in operation.
- How well a reactor mixes
- Where mass transfer limits the process
- How much power goes in and how efficiently it is used
- How the flow changes from one scale to the next
- Which reactor configuration performs better
- Where the process bottleneck sits
Approach
Scientific Rigor with Practical Usability
Most Bolt projects fall into one of six areas.
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Energy Efficiency Improvement
Bolt finds the impeller setup and operating range that does the same job with less power.
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Scale-Up Evaluation
Bolt compares flow and mass transfer in your development reactor with the production vessel before the process moves.
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Troubleshooting Unexpected Mixing Behavior
When a reactor behaves in a way nobody expected, we reproduce that behavior in the model to see which explanations hold up.
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Reactor Configuration Assessment
You compare geometry, impeller and sparger variants while the hardware can still be changed.
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Process Robustness Analysis
Bolt tests whether the process still performs when critical parameters drift within the planned operating range.
Each project ends with numbers for every variant you compared.
Results
Impact of Bolt on Production Process Design
30%
Shorter mixing time in a 160 m³ production reactor
20%
Less energy used by the same reactor
Both numbers come from reconfiguring the impellers of the 160 m³ production reactor at Sandoz Kundl. Source: Bernauer et al., Biotechnology & Bioengineering 2022 (opens in a new tab). The full Sandoz Kundl case study has the details.
Free Demo
Try Bolt yourself for free.
With a free demo account you can try Bolt on example reactors at your own pace. It runs in the cloud, so there is nothing to install, and the account comes with no obligation.
Reactor performance should not rely on heuristics.
If you want more out of an existing reactor or are planning an industrial scale-up, our team can help. We work with mechanistic models that have been validated in production.