Glucose Mass Transfer Under Substrate Inhibition Conditions in a Stationary Basket Bioreactor with Immobilized Yeast Cells

Abstract

The work is dedicated to the study on the external and internal mass transfers of glucose for alcoholic fermentation under glucose inhibition limitation using a bioreactor with stationary basket beds of immobilized Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. By means of the substrate mass balance for a single particle of biocatalysts, considering the kinetic model adapted for the inhibitory effect of glucose, specific mathematical models have been developed for describing the profiles of the substrate concentration in the outer and inner regions of biocatalysts and, implicitly, for estimating its mass flows in the liquid boundary layer surrounding the particle and inside the particle. The values of the mass flows are significantly influenced by the internal diffusion velocity of substrate and rate of the biochemical reaction of substrate consumption, but also by the position inside the basket bed. These influences cumulated led to the appearance of biological inactive region near the particle centre, its magnitude varying from 0.34 to 31% from the overall volume of particles. The presented results are the first unitary approach of the aspects of substrate mass transfer in a basket bed of immobilized biocatalysts, the proposed models being original and complex.