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

Mathematical Modelling of an Enzymatic Separating Microreactor

F. Tměj, P. Hasal, Z. Limbergová, R. Chmelíková, and M. Marek

Department of Chemical Engineering & Center for Nonlinear Dynamics of Chemical and Biological Systems, Institute of Chemical Technology, CZ-166 28 Prague

E-mail: Pavel.Hasal@vscht.cz

Received: 18 April 2001

Abstract: A microreactor-separator system constructed of thin channel filled with an enzyme and microparticulate solid adsorbent immobilized in hydrophilic gel was studied by numerical simulations using a mathematical model of the reactor system. A substrate-inhibited enzyme reaction producing two nonionic products from nonionic substrate (e.g. sucrose hydrolysis by invertase) was considered. Electroosmotic flux and molecular diffusion were considered as mass-transport processes in the gel, as no electrophoretic migration was possible. The mathematical model involved the mass balances of all reaction components in liquid and solid phases, enthalpy balance, and equation describing the enzyme inactivation. A periodic switching of the substrate concentration at the reactor inlet, resulting in periodic alternation of reaction and separation periods, was applied. Dependences of the microreactor-separator operating measures (e.g. separation efficiency of the products) on basic operational parameters (switching period, electric current density, channel length, substrate inlet concentration) were analyzed.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 556a339.pdf

Chemical Papers 55 (6) 339–344 (2001)