Use of a Ceramic Membrane to Improve the Performance of Two-Separate-Phase Biocatalytic Membrane Reactor.

Giuseppe Ranieri,Kang Li,Lidietta Giorno,Zhentao Wu,Rosalinda Mazzei

doi:10.3390/molecules21030345

Abstract

Biocatalytic membrane reactors (BMR) combining reaction and separation within the same unit have many advantages over conventional reactor designs. Ceramic membranes are an attractive alternative to polymeric membranes in membrane biotechnology due to their high chemical, thermal and mechanical resistance. Another important use is their potential application in a biphasic membrane system, where support solvent resistance is highly needed. In this work, the preparation of asymmetric ceramic hollow fibre membranes and their use in a two-separate-phase biocatalytic membrane reactor will be described. The asymmetric ceramic hollow fibre membranes were prepared using a combined phase inversion and sintering technique. The prepared fibres were then used as support for lipase covalent immobilization in order to develop a two-separate-phase biocatalytic membrane reactor. A functionalization method was proposed in order to increase the density of the reactive hydroxyl groups on the surface of ceramic membranes, which were then amino-activated and treated with a crosslinker. The performance and the stability of the immobilized lipase were investigated as a function of the amount of the immobilized biocatalytst. Results showed that it is possible to immobilize lipase on a ceramic membrane without altering its catalytic performance (initial residual specific activity 93%), which remains constant after 6 reaction cycles.

Highlights

In the last decade inorganic membranes have attracted considerable interest in the field of membrane technology
The present study explored the suitability of inorganic hollow fibers to improve the performance of a biocatalytic membrane reactor (BMR), often developed by using polymeric membranes mainly due to their lower costs
The suitability of alumina hollow fiber membranes to improve the performance of a two-separate-phase biocatalytic membrane reactor was demonstrated

Summary

Introduction

In the last decade inorganic membranes have attracted considerable interest in the field of membrane technology. The excellent properties of inorganic membranes in terms of chemical, mechanical and thermal resistance make them suitable materials to develop innovative devices, promoting new research from production to their application. The versatility of these membranes has allowed their use in various applications such as hydrogen production and separation [1,2], propane dehydrogenation [3], filtration for corrosive fluids [4] and for the development of high temperature reactors [5], membrane contactors [6], biosensors [7] and biocatalytic membrane reactors [8,9]. Recent works [11,12] reported very good performance from polymeric and hybrid membranes with regard to organic solvents, even though some problems still remain to be solved such

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Results

Conclusion