CHE1009-BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
MODULE-II
LECTURE – 8
Dr.A.Babu Ponnusami
Associate Professor
SCHEME
1
Enzyme reactor design
Levenspiel’s four fundamental questions
• In approaching the design of a reactor system the engineer has to
answer a number of important priliminary questions before
embarking on his detailed calculations. These questions are as follows:
1. Do I have the right reactor type in mind: should it be plug flow,
mixed flow, recycle, multistage or what?
2. What temperature progression should I aim for: constant, rising,
falling etc. and should that require heat exchange, may be
multistage?
3. For a catalytic reaction what size of particle should be used? This
tells what type of reactor should be used: packed bed, fluidized etc?
4. Does the catalyst deactivate and if so, does it deactivate rapidly or
slowly?
Platform to simulate and optimize the
enzyme reactor operation
BR – Batch reactor,
BRP – Batch reactor with intermittent addition of enzyme
SBR – Semi-batch reactor,
MACR – mechanically agitated continuous reactor,
FXBR – Fixed bed batch reactor
Mass Balance on Reactive System
• In - out + gen - cons = accumulation
FA0 FA
Rate of flow in Rate of flow out
System
GA
Rate of
generation/
consumption
• A mass balance for the system is
dN
FA0 FA G A A
dt
• NA is the mass of “A” inside the system.
• The reaction term can be written in more familiar
terms,
G A = rA V
• V is volume of the system.
• Note that the units for this relation are consistent:
mass mass
volume
time volume time
• If GA (and hence rA) varies with position in the
system volume, we can take this into account by
evaluating this term at several locations. Then DGA1
= rA1 DV1,
• Summing the reactions over the entire volume
yields:
k k
G A G Ai rAi Vi
i 1 i 1
k
• As (that is, as we decrease the size of these cubes and
V 0
increase their number)
• which gives
V
G A rA dV
Generalized Design Equation for Reactors
• In - out + gen - cons = accumulation
V
dN A
FA0 FA rA dV
dt
Types of Reactors
• Batch
– No flow of material in or out of reactor Changes with
time
• Fed- Batch
– Either an inflow or an outflow of material but not both
Changes with time
• Continuous
– Flow in and out of reactor
– Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR)
– Plug Flow Reactor (PFR)
– Steady State Operation
Batch Reactor
• Generalized Design Equation for
Reactors V
dN
0 A
A
F
AFr
A
dV
dt
• No flow into or out of the reactor,
then, FA = FA0 = 0
dN A V
rA dV
dt
• Good mixing, constant volume
dN A d N A V dC A
rAV or rA
dt dt dt
Enzyme Batch Reactor
(constant volume, well mixed)
dS vmax S
r
dt K M S
• integrate from t = 0 to t = t, we obtain
Kmln (S0/S) + (S0 -S) = vmax t
• Batch reactors are often used in the early stage of
development due to their ease of operation and
analysis
Batch Enzyme Reactor Determination of
M-M kinetic
Linear form becomes parameters
(S0 – S) t
= - KM + Vmax
ln(S0/S) ln(S0/S)
(S0 – S)
ln(S0/S)
Vmax
t
- KM
ln(S0/S)
Fed Batch Reactor
• Reactor Design Equation
V dN A
FA0 FA rA dV
dt
• No outflow FA = 0
• Good Mixing rA dV term
out of the integral
dN A d C A V
FA0 rA V
dt dt
Fed Batch Continued
• Convert the mass (NA) to concentration. Applying
integration by parts yields
dV
• Since FA0
dt
• Then dC A
FA0 rAV V C A FA0
dt
• Rearranging
dC A FA0 C A FA0
rA
dt V V
Fed Batch Continued
• Or
dC A FA0
1 C A rA
dt V
• Used when there is substrate inhibition and
for bioreactors with cells.
Assumptions for a fed batch reactor
include
1. Only a feed in
2. Either a feed in or a
removal stream
3. Steady state
4. 2 and 3
5. All of the above
Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
• Assume rate of flow in = rate of flow out
• FA = v CA and FA0 = v CA0
• v = volumetric flow rate (volume/time)
CSTR - continued
• General Reactor Design Equation
V dN A
FA0 FA rA dV
dt
dN A
• Assume Steady State 0
dt
V
• Well Mixed r dV Vr
A A
FA0 FA
• So FA0 FA VrA 0 or V
rA
CSTR for Enzymes
(Enzyme remains inside)
• Input - output + generation - consump = accumulation
dS
FS0 FS rV v
dt
• F - flow rate l/hr
• S - substrate conc.
• V- reactor volume
• r - reaction rate
• at Steady State dS/dt = 0
CSTR - enzymes
rV = F(S0 - S)
and
vmax S
r
KM S
Introducing space-time θ ( = V/F) and r in above equation we get
VmaxS
S0 =S + θ
KM + S
Continuous Stirred Tank Enzyme Reactor at steady-state
Linear form becomes
Sθ
S = - KM + Vmax
(S0 – S)
S
Determination of
M-M kinetic
parameters
Vmax
Sθ
- KM
(S0-S)
Plug Flow Reactor (PFR)
• Tubular Reactor
• Pipe through which fluid flows and reacts.
• Poor mixing
• Difficult to control temperature variations.
• An advantage is the simplicity of construction.
PFR Design Equation for Product
formation
• Design Equation V dN A
FA0 FA rA dV
dt
• Examine a small volume element (DV) with length Dy
and the same radius as the entire pipe.
Flow of
Flow of
A out of
A into
Element
Element
• If the element is small, then spatial variations in rA
are negligible, and Assumption of “good
V mixing” applies only to
r dV r V
A A
the small volume
element
• If volume element is very small, then assume steady
state with no changes in the concentration of A.
dN A
0
dt
• Simplify design equation to:
FA y FA y y rA V 0
• rA is a function of position y, down the length of the
pipe and reactant concentration
• The volume of an element is the product of the
length and cross-sectional area,
DV = A Dy
• Design Equation becomes:
FA y y FA y
ArA
y
• take the limit where the size of a volume
element becomes infinitesimally small
dFA
lim
y 0 dy
ArA
• or since Dy A = V,
dFA
rA
dV
• This is the Design Equation for a PFR
• Bioapplications - Sometimes hollow fiber
reactor analysis is simplified to a PFR
Plug-flow Enzyme Reactor at steady-state
F F F F
S0 S S+dS Sf
dV
Mass balance for the substrate over dV:
FS = F(S + dS) + (-rS) dV
The above can be simplified to - FdS / dV = -rS
F for the steady flow rate through the reactor
S for concentration of the substrate
dV for small volume of the reacting mixture
(-rS) for substrate utilization rate in dV
Plug-flow Enzyme Reactor at steady-state
F F F F
S0 S S+dS Sf
dV
Introducing space-time θ ( = V/F), we get
- dS / dθ = -rS
F for the steady flow rate through the reactor
S for concentration of the substrate
dV for small volume of the reacting mixture
(-rS) for substrate utilization rate in dV
Plug-flow Enzyme Reactor at steady-state
Substituting (-rS) for the simple enzyme reaction in, we get
dS VmaxS
- =
dθ KM + S
Rearranging above equation we get
S θ
∫( ) ∫
KM + S
- dS =
S Vmax dθ
S0 0
Integrating above gives
()
S0
KM ln + (S0 – S) = Vmax θ
S
Plug flow enzyme reactor Determination of
M-M kinetic
Linear form becomes parameters
(S0 – S) θ
= - KM + Vmax
ln(S0/S) ln(S0/S)
(S0 – S)
ln(S0/S)
Vmax
θ
- KM
ln(S0/S)
