Intensification of a biocatalytic oxidation under fine bubble aeration in a rotating bed reactor

Abstract

The utilization of oxidases suffers from insufficient oxygen availability due to its low solubility in gas-liquid multiphase systems. To overcome this limitation, oxygen is continuously supplied to the reaction medium during the course of the reaction, however, it causes significant gas consumption. In this study, a novel experimental set-up was established by installing a sintered frit porous sparger in the SpinChem® rotating bed reactor. Covalently immobilized glucose oxidase on epoxy-functionalized carriers was used in the rotating bed reactor with an activity yield of the immobilization of over 98%. For fine bubble aeration, the volumetric mass transfer coefficient kLa (67.3 h−1) tripled compared to macrobubble aeration (22.5 h−1), while the volume-specific aeration rate remained constant. A maximum reaction yield of 96.5% was reached. The reaction rate was improved by a factor of 12.9 for the fine bubble aeration compared to macrobubble aeration under identical conditions. With fine bubble aeration, the oxygen consumption was reduced by 87.5% over macrobubble aeration, establishing the same enzyme-specific reaction rates at a comparable kLa. Validation was carried out in repetitive batches, achieving the same glucose oxidase specific activity. This study demonstrates the advantages of fine bubble aeration and presents promising results for addressing the sustainable biotransformation processes.