Simulation of the Reactivation of Partially Inactivated Biocatalysts in Sequential Batch Reactors

• Main Authors: Nadia Guajardo, Fernando A. Crespo, Rodrigo A. Schrebler
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Processes
• Subjects: enzyme reactivation; enzyme inactivation; bioreactors; sequential batch bioreactor simulation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/11/1419

The enzymatic reactivation process enables the recovery of catalytic activity for inactive biocatalysts. However, its effect on the specific productivity of the processes has not been studied. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the specific productivity of the processes with and without reactivation using the program Spyder Python (3.7). Using fixed values for all of the parameters, the global specific productivity was 8 mM/h·g_biocat for the process without reactivation, and 4 mM/h·g_biocat for the process with reactivation. Random numbers were generated to use as different values for parameters, and the results yielded a global specific productivity of 3.79 mM/h·g_biocat for the process with reactivation and 3.68 mM/h·g_biocat for the process without reactivation. ANOVA tests showed that there were significant differences between the specific global productivities of the two processes. Reactivation has great potential for use when the biocatalyst is of high cost.