The Application of Airlift Reactors for Immobilized Enzyme Reactions

Abstract

In recent years people are getting more interests in airlift type bioreactors because many biotechnological processes require a bioreactor with good mixing, low shear stress, asepsis for longer operation time period, and ease in scale-up. Airlift reactors have simple structure and do not require impellers for agitation. As a result, neither contamination caused by leaking of mechanical seal nor mechanical and shear damage caused by impellers on fragile culture may occur. Furthermore, the construction and maintenance cost is significantly smaller, especially for a large reactor. Owing to these, the airlift reactor is appealing for the applications in cell culture, pellet form fermentation, and immobilized enzyme reaction [1,2,3].