Issue 4/2014 - UK researchers develop novel enzyme reactor technology

Researchers at the University of Bath in the
United Kingdom have developed a new type of enzyme catalytic process enhancement technology, which is one of
the few that can speed up enzymatic reactions.

Emma Emanuelsson and Dr Darrell Patterson from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath have developed the Rotating Spinning Disc Reactor (SCDR).

The SCDR principle is simple, based on the conventional rotating disc reactor (SDR) principle, but innovative
.
SCDR uses centrifugal force to stretch the film on a rotating horizontal disk covered with a piece of woven fabric that holds the enzyme in place
.
In this case, SCDR can generate the flow of the film through a spinning cloth immobilized with enzymes, thus providing a large interface surface area
for the reaction.

Dr.
Patterson said: "Studies have shown that the SCDR system reacts significantly faster
than traditional enzymatic reaction systems.
Our initial work was to convert in a simple petroleum system (tributyrate hydrolysis) to verify whether the reactor could be used in the treatment practice of oily wastewater
.
Under comparable conditions, we found that the conversion and reaction rates of SCDR were significantly higher than those of conventional batch stirred kettle reactors
.
In addition, SCDR is easy to control, and the rotation speed of the disc/spinning fabric and the feed flow rate of the reactor can well control the reaction speed and conversion rate
.

"Many enzyme reactors will lose enzyme activity
after multiple reaction cycles.
However, the experimental results showed that this lipase immobilized in SCDR showed very good stability after multiple reactions, and for the tributyrate glyceryl ester system, lipase activity remained 80%
after 15 runs.
Dr.
Emanuelsson said
.
(Xiaohua)