AN IMMOBILIZED CELL REACTOR WITH SIMULTANEOUS PRODUCT SEPARATION .1. REACTOR DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

A four-phase reactor-separator (gas, liquid, solid, and immobilized catalyst) is proposed for fermentations characterized by a volatile product and nonvolatile substrate. In this reactor, the biological catalyst is immobilized onto a solid column packing and contacted by the liquid containing the substrate. A gas phase is also moved through the column to strip the volatile product into the gas phase. The Immobilized Cell Reactor-Separtor (ICRS) consists of two basic gas-liquid flow sections: a cocurrent 'enricher' followed by a countercurrent-'stripper. ' In this article, an equilibrium stage model of the reactor is developed to determine the feasibility and important operational variables of such a reactor-separator. The ICRS concept is applied to the ethanol from whey lactose fermentation.