Enzymes stirred tank reactor

Cooking extmders have been studied for the Uquefaction of starch, but the high temperature inactivation of the enzymes in the extmder demands doses 5—10 times higher than under conditions in a jet cooker (69). Eor example, continuous nonpressure cooking of wheat for the production of ethanol is carried out at 85°C in two continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) connected in series plug-fiow tube reactors may be included if only one CSTR is used (70). 

Biocatalysts in nature tend to be optimized to perform best in aqueous environments, at neutral pH, temperatures below 40 °C, and at low osmotic pressure. These conditions are sometimes in conflict with the need of the chemist or process engineer to optimize a reaction with respect to space-time yield or high product concentration in order to facilitate downstream processing. Furthermore, enzymes and whole cells are often inhibited by products or substrates. This might be overcome by the use of continuously operated stirred tank reactors, fed-batch reactors, or reactors with in situ product removal [14, 15]. The addition of organic solvents to increase the solubility of substrates and/or products is a common practice [16]. 

As well as being active, the immobilised enzyme also needs to be stable (active for a long period) and the support must promote this. The support must also have appropriate mechanical characteristics it should not disintegrate if used in a stirred tank reactor it should produce even flow (without channelling) in a packed bed reactor. Hie cost of the support is also important. 

The stirred batch reactors are easy to operate and their configurations avoid temperature and concentration gradient (Table 5). These reactors are useful for hydrolysis reactions proceeding very slowly. After the end of the batch reaction, separation of the powdered enzyme support and the product from the reaction mixture can be accomplished by a simple centrifugation and/or filtration. Roffler et al. [114] investigated two-phase biocatalysis and described stirred-tank reactor coupled to a settler for extraction of product with direct solvent addition. This basic experimental setup can lead to a rather stable emulsion that needs a long settling time. 

A continuous stirred tank reactor has been reported for the hydrolysis of the triglycerides existing in vegetable oil in the presence of the aqueous phase and for synthesis reactions (Table 5). A microfilter can be used to prevent the immobilized enzyme from leaving the reactor. Kawano et al. [115] investigated the hydrolysis of olive oil in octane with Candida cylindracea lipase in aqueous solution in a Vibro Mixer reactor containing vibration plates connected to the crankshaft of a motor and oscillated with fixed rates. 

Figure 4.2 Enzyme-hi-membrane-reactor synthesis of 1-pheny 1-2-propanol from l-phenyl-2-propanone applying a stirred-tank reactor, ultrafiltration module, extraction module and distillation...

Enzymatic degradation was tested with commercial LAC from M. thermophila (2,000 U L ). E2 and EE2 were completely degraded even in the absence of mediators after 3 and 5 h, respectively, and after 1 h in the presence of some mediators. For El total removal was achieved in 8 h in the presence of VA and >70% for the other mediators after 24 h, whereas elimination reached 65% in the absence of mediators [8]. The immobilization of this enzyme by encapsulation in a sol-gel matrix [58] was employed for the treatment of a mixture of El, E2, and EE2 both in a batch stirred tank reactor (BSTR) operating in cycles and a continuous PBR. Removal of estrogens was >85% in the BSTR and 55%, 75%, and 60% for El, E2, and EE2, respectively, in the PBR. Both systems were able to reduce the estrogenic activity of the mixture in 63%. Likewise, the immobilization of VP in the form of CLEAs completely removed E2 and EE2 within 10 min from batch experiments, with a concomitant reduction of estrogenic activity, higher than 60% for both compounds [44]. 

The immobilization of the white rot fungus F. trogii in Na-ALG beads allowed the decolorization of the dye Acid Black 52 in a stirred tank reactor operated in batch [55]. Three enzymes, laccase, MnP, LiP, secreted by fungus were reported during decolorization process. Results showed that laccase enzyme activity increased with increasing alginate concentration from 0 to 4%. Cell growth at immobilized cultivation was maintained more stably than suspended cultivation. Total amount of removed dye was reported to be 469 mg/L for immobilized cultures and 440 mg/L for suspended cultures. 

An enzyme reaction has the M-M rate equation with rm = 13 mol/liter.min and K, = 0.03 mol/liter. Starting concentration is Cs = 10 mol/liter and the flow rate is 10 liter/hr. Find conversions in plug flow and stirred tank reactors. 

An excellent production figure for (R)-mandelonitrile (2400 g/1 per day) was achieved by Kragl et al. [105] using a continuously stirred tank reactor in which an ultrafiltration membrane enables continuous homogenous catalysis to occur from an enzyme (PaHnl) which is retained within the reaction vessel. In order to quench the reaction the outlet of this vessel was fed into a vessel containing a mixture of chloroform and hydrochloric acid, which allowed for accurate product analysis. 

For practical purposes it is often beneficial to use a heterogeneous system with the enzyme as a solid preparation which easily can be separated from the product in the liquid phase. Solid enzyme preparatiorrs can conveniently be used in packed bed and stirred tank reactors. As in other cases with heterogeneous catalysis, mass trarrsfer limitations can reduce the overall reaction rate, but usually this is no major problem. 

A solution to this problem is the enzyme membrane reactor (Figure 10.8). This is a kind of CSTR (continuous stirred tank reactor), with retains the enzyme and the cofactor using an ultrafiltration membrane. This membrane has a cut-off of about 10000. Enzymes usually have a molecular mass of 25000-250000, but the molecular mass of NAD(H) is much too low for retention. Therefore it is first derivatized with polyethylene glycol (PEG 20000). The reactivity of NAD(H) is hardly affected by the derivatization with this soluble polymer. Alanine can now be produced continuously by high concentrations of both enzymes and of NAD (H) in this reactor. 

Figure 11.9 Different arrangements and modes of operation for membrane bioreactors Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) with recirculation arrangement (a), dead-end cell (b), tubular with entrapped enzyme (c).

Most liquid phase chemical and biochemical reactions, with or without catalysts or enzymes, can be carried out either batchwise or continuously. For example, if the production scale is not large, then a reaction to produce C from A and B, all of which are soluble in water, can be carried out batchwise in a stirred tank reactor that is, a lank equipped with a mechanical stirrer. The reactants A and B are charged into the reactor at the start of the operation. The product C is subsequently produced from A and B as time goes on, and can be separated from the aqueous solution when its concentration has reached a predetermined value. 

On occasion, solid particles - such as catalyst particles, immobilized enzymes, or even solid reactant particles - must be suspended in liquid in stirred-tank reactors. In such cases, it becomes necessary to estimate the dimension and speed of the stirrer required for suspending solid particles. The following empirical equation [15] gives the minimum critical stirrer speed (s ) to suspend the particles. 

Batch-stirred-tank reactors [12-21] are usually used for screening enzymatic reactions in dense gases. The design of the system is shown in Figure 9.2-1. Initially, the reaction mixture was pumped into the reactor and then the enzyme-preparation was added. Finally, dry gas was pumped into the reactor, up to the desired pressure. The initial concentration of the reactant never exceeded its solubility-limit in the gas. 

Economic evaluations were made for the enzyme-catalyzed production of oleyl oleate in a high-pressure batch-stirred-tank reactor (HP BSTR) and in a high-pressure continuously... 

Starch Liquefaction. Starch in its natural state is only degraded slowly by CC-amylases. To make the starch susceptible to enzymatic breakdown, it is necessary to gelatinize and liquefy a slurry with a 30—40% dry matter content. Gelatinization temperature depends on the type of starch (67) com is the most common source of industrial starches followed by wheat, tapioca, and potatoes. Liquefaction is achieved by adding a heat-stable a-amylase to the starch slurry. The equipment used for liquefaction may be stirred tank reactors, continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR), or a jet cooker. Most starch processing plants liquefy the starch with a single enzyme dose in a process using a jet cooker (Fig. 9). 

A continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) is an ideal reactor which is based on the assumption that the reactor contents are well mixed. Therefore, the concentrations of the various components of the outlet stream are assumed to be the same as the concentrations of these components in the reactor. Continuous operation of the enzyme reactor can increase the productivity of the reactor significantly by eliminating the downtime. It is also easy to automate in order to reduce labor costs. 

In the following we attempt to describe the acetylcholinesterase/choline acetyltransferase enzyme system inside the neural synaptic cleft in a simple fashion see Figure 4.49. The complete neurocycle of the acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter is simulated in our model as a simple two-enzymes/two-compartments model. Each compartment is described as a constant-flow, constant-volume, isothermal, continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The two compartments (I) and (II) are separated by a nonselective permeable membrane as shown in Figure 4.50. 

The relevant parameter for studies of operating stability of enzymes is the product of active enzyme concentration [E]active and residence time T, [E]active T. In a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) the quantities [E]active and T are linked by Eq. (2.28), where [S0] denotes the initial substrate concentration, x the degree of conversion and r(x) the conversion-dependent reaction rate (Wandrey, 1977 Bommarius, 1992). 

Enzyme Membrane Reactor (Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor, CSTR)... 

A recent development at laboratory scale is the application of an enzyme (lipase) to catalyze the hydrolysis Water and fat are mixed at low temperature (300 K) in a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The water phase contains the enzyme. A much purer glycerol solution is obtained than in the conventional process. The disadvantage is that the equilibrium is not favorable. 

Membrane bioreactors have been reviewed previously in every detail [3,4,7,8,18], There are two main types of membrane bioreactors (i) the system consists of a traditional stirred-tank reactor combined with a membrane separation unit (Figure 14.1) (ii) the membrane contains the immobilized biocatalysts such as enzymes, micro-organisms and antibodies and thus, acts as a support and a separation unit (Figure 14.2). The biocatalyst can be immobilized in or on the membrane by entrapment, gelification, physical adsorption, ionic binding, covalent binding or crosslinking [3, 7, 18]. Our attention will be primarily focused on the second case where the membrane acts as a support for biocatalyst and as a separation unit, in this study. The momentum and mass-transport process, in principle, are the same in both cases, namely when there is... 

The discontinuous stirred tank reactor represents one of the most traditional reactor configurations for enzymatic reactions. It consists of a stirred tank where the enzyme, substrates, and cofactors are added at the beginning of the operation with no inlet and/or outlet stream during the reaction time. This type of reactor is usually considered to present an ideal hydrodynamic behavior therefore, the reactor is supposed to be completely mixed and the concentration of all... 

The enzymatic system used for the continuous production of Mn3+-malonate is presented in Fig. 10.3. It is composed by a stirred tank reactor (200-mL working volume) operated in continuous mode coupled to a 10 kDa cutoff ultrafiltration membrane (Prep/Scale-TFF Millipore), which permits the recycling of the enzyme to the reaction vessel. The enzyme was recycled in a recycling feed flow ratio of 12 1. 

---