Decreases in molecularity promote conversion when reactions are catalyzed by enzymes immobilized in slab-shaped beads

Application of Fick's first law to substrate undergoing chemical reaction catalyzed by an enzyme immobilized in a porous slab-shaped bead leads to substrate concentration profiles that are flatter when the ratio of stoichiometric coefficients of product to reactant (x) is lower. Since the actual effectiveness factor decreases when x increases (at approximately the same rate irrespective of the value taken by the Michaelis-Menten parameter), then considerable overprediction of the conversion levels obtained within a given reaction timeframe will occur if the simplistic (and more easily modelled) situation of equimolar counterdiffusion is taken for modelling purposes when x>1.