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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter December 1, 2011

Performance Analysis of Immobilized Enzyme Semifluidised Bed Bioreactors

  • C.M. Narayanan , Maneka Banik and Sayani Halder

In spite of the many-sided advantages of semifluidised bed bioreactors, no attempt has been made to simulate their performance mathematically. Only scattered experimental data are available in literature. In the present study, therefore, attempts have been made to simulate immobilized enzyme semifluidised bed bioreactors’ performance as equivalent to CSTR – PFR combinations, but with due allowances for the heterogeneity of the system. Bioconversions that follow Michaelis – Menten kinetics (with and without substrate inhibition) and reversible Michaelis – Menten kinetics have been considered. Substrate transfer into the particle (that accommodates the immobilized enzyme) is governed by the magnitude of effectiveness factor which is evaluated based on the generalized integral for the estimation of Thiele – type modulus and the corresponding correlation for effectiveness factor (as a hyperbolic tangent function) and also based on the analytical expression proposed by Gottifredi and Gonzo. Parameters such as operating semifluidisation velocity, porosity of fluidized section, height ratio of packed section to fluidized section are estimated from experimental correlations that are selected through elaborate trial and error procedure. Though the simulation model involves simplifications and empirical estimation of a few parameters, model results are found to exhibit reasonably good agreement with data collected through extensive experimental investigations, the maximum deviation being ±12.5 %. This confirms the acceptability of the software package developed. The developed software could be, therefore, recommended for the design and installation of industrial semifluidised bed bioreactors and also for the performance analysis of existing industrial bioreactors.

Published Online: 2011-12-1

©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

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