ENZYMATIC RESOLUTION WITH A MULTIPHASE MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR - A THEORETICAL-ANALYSIS

A mathematical formulation was developed for the simulation of multiphase enzyme membrane reactors which have been shown to have great utility for the enzymatic resolution of stereoisomers. In this analysis, two cases are considered: substractive resolution, in which the unreacted stereoisomer of the substrate is recovered in the organic stream, and product resolution, where the optically pure product of the enzymatic reaction is recovered in the aqueous stream. A parametric investigation of the effects of the specific rate constant, membrane thickness, and partition coefficient was carried out. A dimensionless analysis was used to examine the effects of Thiele modulus, Biot number, and enantiomeric ratio on the performance of this reactor/separator system. In addition, the relationship between throughput and membrane thickness was studied for a variety of operating conditions. A membrane thickness limit was observed with respect to product optical purity, indicating that there may be significant advantages to employing relatively thin membranes with high enzyme loading for enzymatic resolution systems. The analysis presented here is a useful tool for the optimization of multiphase membrane reactor systems for enzymatic resolution. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.