Immobilization of glucoamylase by adsorption on carbon supports and its application for heterogeneous hydrolysis of dextrin Original Research Article

Glucoamylase (GA) was immobilized by adsorption on carbon support: on Sibunit, on bulk catalytic filamentous carbon (bulk CFC) and on activated carbon (AC). This was used to prepare heterogeneous biocatalysts for the hydrolysis of starch dextrin. The effect of the texture characteristics and chemical properties of the support surface on the enhancement of the thermal stability of the immobilized enzyme was studied, and the rates of the biocatalyst’s thermal inactivation at 65–80 °C were determined. The thermal stability of glucoamylase immobilized on different carbon supports was found to increase by 2–3 orders of magnitude in comparison with the soluble enzyme, and decrease in the following order: GA on Sibunit > GA on bulk CFC > GA on AC. The presence of the substrate (dextrin) was found to have a significant stabilizing effect. The thermal stability of the immobilized enzyme was found to increase linearly when the concentration of dextrin was increased from 10 wt/vol % to 50 wt/vol %. The total stabilization effect for glucoamylase immobilized on Sibunit in concentrated dextrin solutions was about 105 in comparison with the enzyme in a buffer solution. The developed biocatalyst, ‘Glucoamylase on Sibunit’ was found to have high operational stability during the continuous hydrolysis of 30–35 wt/vol % dextrin at 60 °C, its inactivation half-time (t1/2) exceeding 350 h. To improve the starch saccharification productivity, an immersed vortex reactor (IVR) was designed and tested in the heterogeneous process with the biocatalyst ‘Glucoamylase on Sibunit’. The dextrin hydrolysis rate, as well as the process productivity in the vortex reactor, was found to increase by a factor of 1.2–1.5 in comparison with the packed-bed reactor.