A novel hollow‐fiber reactor with reversible immobilization of lactase

Experimental and theoretical studies on a backflush hollow-fiber enzymatic reactor (HFER) were conducted in this work for a lactose/lactase system. An A. niger lactase was chosen, from the four lactases tested, for reversible immobilization in the sponge layers of the fibers. An enzyme loading procedure was developed that allowed reliable and reproducible operation of the hollow-fiber reactor and produced industrially significant conversions without apparent change in the activity or stability of the lactase used. This reversible immobilization scheme also permitted easy replacement of the enzyme used. The performance of the backflush HFER was investigated and a large number of data concerning its operation were obtained and interpreted. Momentum and mass transports in such a HFER were analyzed, and mathematical models that took the experimental findings into consideration were also developed and solved analytically and/or numerically. Predictions from the computer model developed in this work were found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental data collected, suggesting the possibility of a priori design of a process-scale backflush HFER. With minor modifications, the models developed are expected to be applicable to hollow-fiber reactors with a wide selection of immobilized cells, organelles, and other enzymes.