Hydrolase-catalyzed reactions in membrane reactors at atmospheric and high pressure Original Research Article

Membrane reactors could serve as a tool for enzyme-catalyzed reactions and they enable the performance of catalytic reaction, enzyme recovery and product isolation as a one-step process. In the presented work, the use of continuous flat-shape and continuous tubular membrane enzymatic reactors for different enzymatic systems at atmospheric pressure and at supercritical conditions are described. In a high-pressure continuous enzymatic flatshape membrane reactor, where supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) was used as a solvent, the high-pressure enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of sunflower oil was performed. The influence of enzyme concentration and temperature on the production of total free fatty acids and especially oleic acid in biphasic (SC-CO2/H2O) medium were investigated. In the same type of reactor hydrolysis of soybean oil at atmospheric pressure was also performed. The application of tubular ceramic membranes in the high-pressure reaction system was studied on hydrolysis of carboxy-methyl cellulose (CMC) at atmospheric pressure and in biphasic (SC-CO2/H2O) medium. The reaction was catalyzed with covalent linked cellulase from Humicola insolens on the surface of ceramic membrane. The physical characteristics for tubular ceramic membranes before and after immobilization of enzyme onto membrane were defined, as well.