Effect of biocatalyst swelling on the operation of packed-bed bioreactors

MAMMARELLA, ENRIQUE; RUBIOLO, AMELIA

Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil

Conferencia; XVII Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia Química; 2008

Universidad Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE) y Asociación Brasilera de Ingeniería Química (ABEQ)

A general mathematical model has been developed for predicting the performance and simulation of a packed-bed immobilized enzyme reactor performing a reaction, which follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics with competitive product inhibition. The performance characteristics of a packed-bed immobilized enzyme reactor have been analyzed taking into account the effects of bed swelling on various diffusional phenomena like axial dispersion, internal and external mass transfer limitations, moreover than the fractional substrate conversion. The model design equations are then solved by orthogonal collocation with six internal points. The numerical solutions were compared with experimental data obtained for a packed-bed reactor operating with β-galactosidase entrapped in Ca-alginate-K-κ-carrageenan gels for lactose hydrolysis. Biocatalysts were examined considering their swelling properties, their responses to the temperature and pH changes, and their ability to incorporate and expel enzyme molecules. The model predicted the experimental data with errors smaller than 2.5%.