ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Modeling of enzymatic reaction in an airlift reactor using an axial dispersion model

Ivan Sikula and Jozef Markoš

Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, SK-812 37 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia

E-mail: jozef.markos@stuba.sk

Received: 19 April 2007  Revised: 14 June 2007  Accepted: 20 June 2007

Abstract: This work was focused on modeling of biochemical processes in a 40-L internal-loop airlift reactor. Due to different mixing in the specific zones of the reactor four main sections, bottom, riser, separator and downcomer, were recognized. Each zone was modeled by an adequate mixing model: bottom and separator sections by the model of ideally-stirred reactor; riser and downcomer sections by the model of plug-flow reactor with axial dispersion. In the model, the effects of mass transfer, hydrodynamics, and reaction kinetics were taken into account. The model of the reactor was experimentally verified by the aerobic enzymatic oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid. Simulations are in good agreement with experimental data.

Keywords: airlift reactor - modeling - axial dispersion model - gluconic acid - glucose oxidase - catalase

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-007-0073-9

Chemical Papers 62 (1) 10–17 (2008)