Improved biocatalyst effectiveness by controlled immobilization of enzymes

Abstract

Nonuniform enzyme distributions can be obtained by kinetic control of the immobilization process. Such heterogeneous biocatalysts exhibit higher effectiveness compared to conventional immobilization procedures, when the mass transfer of substrates or products is limiting. Model calculations provide some insight into the relative weight of the immobilization parameters with respect to optimal control of the enzyme distribution. Experimental results and model calculations show that considerably improved effectiveness of biocatalysts can be obtained. The role of external mass transfer is emphasized.