Mathematical modeling and simulation of steady state plug flow for lactose-lactase hydrolysis in fixed bed

Abstract

A detailed mathematical model for evaluating lactose hydrolysis with immobilized enzyme in a packed bed tubular reactor is presented. The model accounts for axial and radial dispersion effects, chemical reaction and external mass transfer resistances but is void of significant internal diffusion resistances of the particles. The comprehensive model was then simplified to a plug flow model for lactose-lactose hydrolysis in fixed bed. The resulting plug flow model was solved by using Runge-Kutta-Gill method via employing different kinetics for lactose hydrolysis. The reliability of model simulations was tested using experimental data from a laboratory packed bed column, where the β-galactosidase of Kluyveromyces fragilis was immobilized on spherical chitosan beads. Comparison of the simulated results with experimental exit conversion show that the plug flow model incorporating Michaelis-Menten kinetics with competitive product (galactose) inhibition are appropriate to interpret the experimental results and simulate the process of lactose hydrolysis in a fixed bed when the mass transfer resistance was reduced by a factor of 34.5.