Development of reactor model for glucose isomerization catalyzed by whole-cell immobilized glucose isomerase

Application of a novel type impinging streams reactor in solid-liquid enzyme reactions and modeling of residence time distribution using GDB model

Solid-liquid enzyme reactions constitute important processes in biochemical industries. The isomerization of d-glucose to d-fructose, using the immobilized glucose isomerase (Sweetzyme T), as a typical example of solid-liquid catalyzed reactions has been carried out in one stage and multi-stage novel type of impinging streams reactors. Response surface methodology was applied to determine the effects of certain pertinent parameters of the process namely axial velocity (A), feed concentration (B), nozzles' flow rates (C) and enzyme loading (D) on the performance of the apparatus. The results obtained from the conversion of glucose in this reactor were much higher than those expected in conventional reactors, while residence time was decreased dramatically. Residence time distribution (RTD) in a one-stage impinging streams reactor was investigated using colored solution as the tracer. The results showed that the flow pattern in the reactor was close to that in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Based on the analysis of flow region in the reactor, gamma distribution model with bypass (GDB) was applied to study the RTD of the reactor. The results indicated that RTD in the impinging streams reactor could be described by the latter model.

Optimal temperature policy for immobilized enzyme packed bed reactor performing reversible Michaelis-Menten kinetics using the disjoint policy

The optimal temperature policy that maximizes the time-averaged productivity of a continuous immobilized enzyme packed bed reactor is determined. This optimization study takes into consideration the enzyme thermal deactivation with substrate protection during the reactor operation. The general case of reversible Michaelis-Menten kinetics under constant reactor feed flow rate is assumed. The corresponding nonlinear optimization problem is solved using the calculus of variations by applying the disjoint policy. This policy reduces the optimization problem into a differential-algebraic system, DAE. This DAE system defines completely the optimal temperature-time profiles. These profiles depend on the kinetic parameters, feed substrate concentration, operating period, and the residence time and are characterized by increasing form with time. Also, general analytical expressions for the slopes of the temperature and residual enzyme activity profiles are derived. An efficient solution algorithm is developed to solve the DAE system, which results into a one-dimensional optimization problem with simple bounds on the initial feed temperature. The enzymatic isomerization of glucose into fructose is selected as a case study. The computed productivities are very close to that obtained by numerical nonlinear optimization with simpler problem to solve. Moreover, the computed conversion profiles are almost constant over 90% of the operating periods, thus producing a homogeneous product.