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Countercurrent multistage fluidized bed reactor for immobilized biocatalysts: I. Modeling and simulation
Author(s) -
Vos Henk J.,
Groen Dick J.,
Potters Jacques J. M.,
Luyben Karel Ch. A. M.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.260360407
Subject(s) - countercurrent exchange , plug flow , fluidized bed , plug flow reactor model , biocatalysis , chemistry , reactor design , trickle bed reactor , continuous reactor , immobilized enzyme , continuous stirred tank reactor , chemical engineering , bioreactor , substrate (aquarium) , microreactor , mixing (physics) , chromatography , catalysis , thermodynamics , nuclear engineering , organic chemistry , enzyme , engineering , reaction mechanism , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , geology
For the application of immobilized enzymes, fixed bed reactors are used almost exclusively. Fixed bed reactors have specific disadvantages, especially for processes with a deactivating catalyst. Therefore, we have studied a novel reactor type with continuous transport of the immobilized biocatalyst. Flow of biocatalyst is countercurrent to the substrate solution. Because of a stagewise reactor design, back‐mixing of biocatalyst is very limited and transport is nearly plug flow. The reactor operates at a constant flow rate and conversion, due to constant holdup of catalytic activity. The reactor performance is compared with a configuration of fixed bed reactors. For reactions in the first‐order regime, enzyme requirements in this new reactor are slightly less than for fixed bed processes. The multistage fluidized bed appears to be an attractive reactor design to use biocatalyst to a low residual activity. However, nonuniformity of the particles might affect plug flow transport of the biocatalyst. A laboratory scale reactor and experiments are described in Part II 1 of this series. Hydrodynamic design aspects of a multistage fluidized bed are discussed in more detail in Part III. 2