• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.960-967
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• 2011

Tannin acyl hydrolase, also known as tannase, is an enzyme with important applications in the food, feed, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. However, despite a growing interest in the catalytic properties of tannase, its practical use is very limited owing to high production costs. Several studies have already demonstrated the advantages of solid-state fermentation (SSF) for the production of fungal tannase, yet the optimal conditions for enzyme production strongly depend on the microbial strain utilized. Therefore, the aim of this study was to improve the tannase production by a locally isolated A. niger strain in an SSF system. The SSF was carried out in packed-bed bioreactors using polyurethane foam as an inert support impregnated with defined culture media. The process parameters influencing the enzyme production were identified using a Plackett-Burman design, where the substrate concentration, initial pH, and incubation temperature were determined as the most significant. These parameters were then further optimized using a Box-Behnken design. The maximum tannase production was obtained with a high tannic acid concentration (50 g/l), relatively low incubation temperature ($30^{\circ}C$), and unique low initial pH (4.0). The statistical strategy aided in increasing the enzyme activity nearly 1.97-fold, from 4,030 to 7,955 U/l. Consequently, these findings can lead to the development of a fermentation system that is able to produce large amounts of tannase in economical, compact, and scalable reactors.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.507-515
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• 1992

This study was carried out to investigate the heat-storage/-release characteristics of the thermochemical reaction of the calcined dolomite and steam system for the application of regenerative heat exchangers with the packed bed shape experimental apparatus. The experimental data were obtained at the following conditions ; the hydration temperature was $150-400^{\circ}C$, the dehydration temperature was $700-800^{\circ}C$ and the steam mass flow rates were 294, 430 and 567 g/hr. In the present study, it was found that MgO of the calcined dolomite was not hydrated during the hydration process under the studied experimental conditions. Therefore, MgO of the calcined dolomite can be regard as an inert material. Because the reaction was proceeded from the packed bed input to packed bed output and from wall to center, it could be thought that the rate determining step is not the reaction itself but the heat transfer.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2022

Biodiesel production has attracted attention as a sustainable source of fuel and is a competitive alternate to diesel engines. The glycerol that is produced as a by-product is generally discarded as waste and can be converted to green chemicals such as acetins to increase bio-diesel profitability. Acetins find application in fuel, food, pharmaceutical and leather industries. Batch experiments and analysis have been previously conducted for synthesis of acetins using glycerol esterification reaction aided by sulfated metal oxide catalysts (SO₄^2-/CeO₂-ZrO₂). The aim of this study was to optimize process parameters: effects of mole ratio of reactants (glycerol and acetic acid), catalyst concentration and reaction temperature to maximize glycerol conversion/acetin selectivity. The optimum conditions for this reaction were determined using response surface methodology (RSM) designed as per a five-level-three-factor central composite design (CCD). Statistica software 10 was used to analyze the experimental data obtained. The optimized conditions obtained were molar ratio - 1:12, catalyst concentration - 6 wt.% and temperature -90 ℃. A packed bed reactor was fabricated and column studies were performed using the optimized conditions. The breakthrough curve was analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

Various forest humic substances were collected at different climate regions with different forest types, and adsorption of heavy metals such as Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) were characteristically conducted to obtain optimal adsorption conditions and to evaluate the removal efficiency of heavy metals by each forest humic substance. The adsorption isotherms for Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) conformed to Langmuir's equation. In the stirred reactor, the removal efficiencies of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) by forest humic substances were more than 90% but that of Cr(III) was less than 60%. The adsorption capacities of heavy metals in the stirred reactor were considerably varied depending on the type of forest humic substances. Among humic substances, the one from deciduous forest at subtropical region showed the highest removal efficiency for Cu(II). There was no significant difference in removal efficiency by each heavy metal depending on reaction temperature ranged from 20 to 50oC except for Cr(III), and the adsorptions of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) were occurred rapidly in the incipient stage within 10 min, while Cr(III) needed more reaction time to be adsorbed. The stirred and packed bed column reactors showed similar adsorption characteristics of heavy metals by humic substances, but the removal efficiency was considerably higher in the packed bed column reactor than in the stirred reactor. Therefore, in actual operation process, a continuous packed bed column reactor was more economical.

• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.166-170
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• 2014

The continuous experiments were carried out using fixed-bed column packed with strong-acid cation exchange resin for the removal of lithium ions from aqueous solution. The parameters such as bed height, flow rate and inlet concentration were investigated. Breakthrough time ($t_{0.05}$), saturation time ($t_{0.95}$), and total amount of lithium ion removed (mtotal) were obtained from the breakthrough curves. The results showed that $t_{0.05}$ and $t_{0.95}$ decreased with decreasing bed height, and decreased with increasing inlet concentration and flow rate. mtotal increased with increasing inlet concentration and bed height, but decreased with increasing flow rate. Thomas model and Yoon-Nelson model equations were applied to the experimental data, the results showed that the breakthrough data gave a good fit to Thomas model equation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.495-504
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• 2015

This work investigated the characteristics of a packed-bed plasma reactor system and the performances of the plasma reactors connected in series or in parallel for the decomposition of ethylene. Before the discharge ignition, the effective capacitance of the ${\gamma}$-alumina packed-bed plasma reactor was larger than that of the reactor without any packing, but after the ignition the effective capacitance was similar to each other, regardless of the packing. The energy of electrons created by plasma depends mainly on the electric field intensity, and was not significantly affected by the gas composition in the range of 0~20% (v/v) oxygen (nitrogen : 80~100% (v/v)). Among the various reactive species generated by plasma, ground-state atomic oxygen and ozone are understood to be primarily involved in oxidation reactions, and as the electric field intensity increases, the amount of ground-state atomic oxygen relatively decreases while that of nitrogen atom increases. Even though there are many parameters affecting the performance of the plasma reactor such as a voltage, discharge power, gas flow rate and residence time, all parameters can be integrated into a single parameter, namely, specific input energy (SIE). It was experimentally confirmed that the performances of the plasma reactors connected in series or in parallel could be treated as a function of SIE alone, which simplifies the scale-up design procedure. Besides, the ethylene decomposition results can be predicted by the calculation using the rate constant expressed as a function of SIE.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 1995

This study was carried to investigate the biodegradability of phenol in the wastewater with the two sludge blanket-packed bed reactor in series. Each reactor had a dimension of 0.09 m i.d. and 1.5 m height and consisted of two regions. The lower region was a sludge blanket of 0.5 m height and the upper region was a packed-bed of 1 m height. The packed bed region was charged with ceramic raschig rings of 10 mm i.d., 15 mm o.d. and 20 mm length. The reactors were operated at 35$\circ$C and the hydraulic retention time(HRT) was maintained 24 hours. The synthetic wastewater composed of glucose and phenol as major components was fed into the reactor in a continuous mode with incereasing phenol concentration. In addition, the nutrient trace metals($Na^+, Mg^{2+}, Ca^{2+}, PO_4^{3-}, NH_4^+, Co^{2+}, Fe^{2+}$ etc.) were added for growing anaerobes. The phenol concentration of the effluent, the overall gas production, the composition of product gas, the efficiency of COD reduction and the duration of acclimation period were measured to determine the performance of the anaerobic wastewater treatment system as the phenol concentration of the influent was increased from 600 to 2400 mg//l. Successfully stable biodegradation of phenol could be achieved with the anaerobic treatment system from 600 to 1, 800 mg/l of the influent phenol concentration. The upper level of influent phenol loading was high enough to meet most of the practical requirement. The duration of acclimation increased with the phenol loading. At steady state of the influent phenol concentration of 1800 mg/l, the treatment performance indicated the phenol reduction efficiency of 99%, the COD reduction efficiency of 99% and the gas production rate of 37 l/day. At the influent phenol concentration of 2400 mg/l, however, the operation of the treatment system was noted unstable. While the concentration of methane in biogas decreased with increasing the influent phenol loading, the carbon dioxide was increased. However, the concentration of hydrogen was varied negligibly. The concentration of methane was high enough to be used as a fuel. As a result, it is suggested that anaerobic phenol wastewater treament was economical in the sense of energy recovery and wastewater treatment.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.110-117
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• 1998

A packed-bed reactor with immobilized transglucosidase (TG) was operated to test the possibility of continuous production of isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO) and the effect of concentration and feed rate of substrate solution on the production pattern as well as operational stability The pattern of formation of IMO was the same to the one of soluble TG. The concentrations of glucose and isomaltose produced by the packed-bed reactor were gradually decreased as the flow rates were increased regardless of the concentrations and kinds of maltose solution as substrate. Isomaltotriose showed the same tendency except 10% maltose solution. But the concentration of panose was increased and then decreased as the flow rates were increased. The maximum yield of IMO was 52.1% when 10% (w/v) solution was fed to the reactor at 2 mL./min feed rate. When each 20% and 30% (w/v) solution was respectively used at $0.5{\sim}1.0\;mL/min$, the maximum yield were $39.0{\sim}38.0%\;and\;12.1{\sim}14.2%$. The maximum yield was 36.3% at $0.5{\sim}1.0\;mL/min$ when a commercial maltose product containing 20% maltose was used. The reactor was stably operated at $55^{\circ}C$. 85% and 65% of initial activity was maintained for 144 hours and 288 hours of operation, respectively. A reactor analysis strongly an immobilized TG system could apply to continuous production of IMO.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.154-158
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• 2004

Recycled packed-bed reactor emploring immobilized microorganism was suggested in this paper for efficient denitrification. In the batch reactor, the effects of initial oxidation-reduction potential and nitrate concentration on denitrification were investigated. As the initial oxidation-reduction potential was decresed to -70 mV from ＋40 mV, the removal rate of nitrate was increased to 3.33 from 1.25 m9 NO$_3$$\^$-/-N/min under the experimental conditions. As the initial nitrate-N concentraion was increased to 200 mg/l, the removal rate of nitrate was proportional to the concentration of nitrate. When the concentration of nitrate-N was 400 mg/min, nitrite was detected, and when the initial nitrate-N concentration was reached at 1,000 mg/l, it took longer time for the complete nitrate removal. In order to decrease the initial oxidation-reduction potential and the nitrate-N concentration in the feed stream, the effluent was recycled to the influent stream in the packed-bed reactor. In the case of recycling, the initial oxidation-reduction potential was decreased to 30 mV from 150 mV, and the initial nitrate concentration could be decreased to 85 from 120 mg NO$_3$$\^$-/-N/l. As the result of recycling, the removal rate of nitrate was increased to 91.7% from 49.2%.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1471-1476
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• 2013

The present study deals with the immobilization of Kluyveromyces lactis ${\beta}$-galactosidase on a weak ionic exchange resin (Duolite A568) as polymer support. ${\beta}$-Galactosidase was immobilized using the adsorption method. A kinetic study of the immobilized enzyme was performed in a packed-bed reactor. The adsorption of the enzyme followed a typical Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The adsorption parameters of k and n were 14.6 and 1.74, respectively. The initial rates method was used to characterize the kinetic parameters of the free and immobilized enzymes. The Michaelis-Menten constant ($K_m$) for the immobilized enzyme (120 mM) was higher than it was for the free enzyme (79 mM). The effect of competitive inhibition kinetics was studied by changing the concentration of galactose in a recycling packed-bed reactor. The kinetic model with competitive inhibition by galactose was best fitted to the experimental results with $V_m$, $K_m$, and $K_I$ values of 46.3 $mmolmin^{-1}mg^{-1}$, 120 mM, and 24.4 mM, respectively. In a continuous packed-bed reactor, increasing the flow rate of the lactose solution decreased the conversion efficiency of lactose at different input lactose concentrations. Continuous operation of 11 days was conducted to investigate the stability of a long-term operation. The retained activity of the immobilized enzymes was 63% and the half-life of the immobilized enzyme was found to be 15 days.