Recycle bioreactor for bioethanol production from wheat starch I. Cold enzyme hydrolysis

A 5 L membrane bioreactor system has been designed and operated at low temperature to hydrolyze starch granules directly to sugars using barley alpha -amylase. The system includes a temperature and pH controlled, well-mixed bioreactor; microfilters to separate and recycle granules; and ultrafilters to separate and recycle enzyme molecules. Operation in batch mode demonstrated similar kinetics and low productivity observed earlier in shake flasks, whereas continuous flow operation was not successful due to enzyme inhibition and degradation. Sequential batch mode operation, involving filtration after each batch hydrolysis, produced optimum productivity measured at 0.16 grams of starch granules hydrolyzed per gram of enzyme per hour for more than 100 hours of operation.