Prediction of the fixed-bed reactor behavior for biotransformation with parallel enzyme deactivation using dispersion model: A case study on hydrogen peroxide decomposition by commercial catalase

The problems of process costs and pollution of residual waters in the textile industry require increasing attention due to the new ecological regulations and also those resulting from an economic point of view. Hence, the behavior of non-isothermal fixed-bed reactor applied for hydrogen peroxide decomposition by immobilized Terminox Ultra catalase attached onto the outer surface of glass beads was studied to determine the operational conditions at which hydrogen peroxide decomposition is most effectively. A dispersion model for bioreactor applied in this work, and verified experimentally, took into account the coupled mass and heat balances as well as the rate equation for parallel enzyme deactivation. The effect of feed temperature, feed flow rate, feed hydrogen peroxide concentration, and diffusional resistances were analysed. In the calculations the global effectiveness factor based on the external mass-transfer model developed previously was employed to properly predict the real bioreactor behavior.