Study of performance of a tubular membrane reactor for an enzyme catalyzed reaction

Abstract

AbstractA tubular membrane reactor offers many advantages over a solid wall reactor to carry out an enzyme catalyzed reaction. With proper membrane selectivity, the product, may be separated from the reacting stream and the enzyme recycled for continuous reuse. In most cases, enzyme reuse contributes to the economic feasibility of a continuous enzyme catalyzed process. Furthermore, the efficiency and performance of a membrane reactor is greater than that of a solid wall reactor.Continuous hydrolysis of starch by the enzyme β‐amylase, carried out in a commercially available tubular membrane unit, is studied at different starch and enzyme concentrations for a given system pressure and inlet flow rate. Results show that the performance of the membrane reactor is in all cases greater than that of the solid wall reactor. A steady state in performance of permeation rate is, however, not reached by the membrane reactor, which shows a continuous decline within the periods examined in this study. This decline is caused in part by the aging of the starch solution, but mostly by the formation of a concentrated, or gel, layer at the membrane surface. This appears to be the main limiting factor for this process since the decline in reaction and permeation rate results in a severe decrease in the amount of maltose in the permeate.