Performance of enzyme reactor systems

Abstract

As a basic research for the design of continuous enzyme reactor systems, the performances of two ideal enzyme reactor, system(plug flow reactor (PER), continuous stirred tank reactor(CSTR)) were studied using the following four types of reaction kinetic model and corresponding enzyme. 1. One substrate - single intermediate (Type I- Michaelis Menten kinetics) : 3-Ketosteroid-delta-1-dehydrogenase. 2. Reversible one substrate (Type II) : Glucose isomerase 3. Double inhibition by two products (Type III) : penicillin amidohydrolase 4. Inhibition by substrate (Type IV) : Invertase All kinetic constants were taken from the references(6, 25, 31, 29). With the use of sound mathematical models, the performances of enzyme reactor systems were simulated by using a computer. Furthermore, it was possible to predict the optimal operating conditions in terms of productivity (that is, number of moles of product formed per unit reactor volume per unit time). In optimization of reactor systems, such important process variables as substrate feed concentration, reactor space time, enzyme loading, and the result of reactor performance, fractional conversion are studied. The functional relationships between these variables and the productivities have been developed, and these correlations have been used in predicting the performance of enzyme reactor systems under a wide range of operating conditions. Based on these results, the optimal operating conditions of enzyme reactor system have been selected. Since the dimensionless variables are used in the kinetic models, the results of simulation can be generalized. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics may be directly applied to new enzyme exhibiting the same kinetic types. The results of other enzymes may also be used by simply changing the kinetic constants for other enzyme with the same kinetic models. The effect of enzyme loading was studied and the increased productivity and the reduced space time in linear proportionally were found with t...