−Dissolved organic phase damage to biocatalyst
Downstream Processing +Isolation of reactant from product
+Higher product concentration
−Emulsification
limit of the substrate. Due to the action of the biocatalyst more substrate will
subsequently partition out of the organic phase in order to maintain a thermodynamic
equilibrium. In this way a high concentration of product can be produced in a typical
batch process. A second substrate may also be present, either preferentially present in the
organic phase or alternatively supplied from another phase (for example oxygen from the
gas phase or water from the aqueous phase). Depending upon its solubility, the product
may either remain in the aqueous phase or partition into the organic phase. The basic
mass transfer and biocatalytic reaction steps are summarised in Figure 5.1. This implies
that the key to the design of two-phase biocatalytic reactors will be to match the rate of
substrate supply to (or product removal from) the biocatalyst with the rate of the reaction
itself such that the aqueous phase concentration of any inhibitory substrate (or product) is
maintained below a
Multiphase bioreactor design 124