Optimal feed temperature for hydrogen peroxide decomposition process occurring in a bioreactor with fixed-bed of commercial catalase: a case study on thermal deactivation of the enzyme

On the basis of hydrogen peroxide decomposition process occurring in the bioreactor with fixed-bed of commercial catalase the optimal feed temperature was determined. This feed temperature was obtained by maximizing the time-average substrate conversion under constant feed flow rate and temperature constraints. In calculations, convection-diffusion-reaction immobilized enzyme fixed-bed bioreactor described by a coupled mass and energy balances as well as general kinetic equation for rate of enzyme deactivation was taken into consideration. This model is based on kinetic, hydrodynamic and mass-transfer parameters estimated in earlier work. The simulation showed that in the biotransformation with thermal deactivation of catalase optimal feed temperature is only affected by kinetic parameters for enzyme deactivation and decreases with increasing value of activation energy for deactivation. When catalase undergoes parallel deactivation the optimal feed temperature is strongly dependent on hydrogen peroxide feed concentration, feed flow rate and diffusional resistances expressed by biocatalyst effectiveness factor. It has been shown that the more significant diffusional resistances and the higher hydrogen peroxide conversions, the higher the optimal feed temperature is expected.