Development of a multienzyme reactor for dopamine synthesis: II. Reactor engineering and simulation

✍ Scribed by William A. Anderson; Murray Moo-Young; Raymond L. Legge

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 776 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/bit.260400308

✦ Synopsis

Aspects of reaction engineering associated with multienzyme reactions have been studied in a system where dopamine is produced from catechol, pyruvate and ammonium by sequential enzymatic reactions catalyzed by tyrosine phenol lyase (TPL) and tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC). Mi- crobial cells containing TPL activity (Erwinia herbicola) and TDC activity (Streptococcus faecalis) were coimmobilized in glutaraldehyde cross-linked porcine gelatin beads with a mean diameter of 2.8 mm for use in the reactions. Measurement of the transport properties in the beads indicate that the gelatin matrix does not significantly increase the diffu- sion resistance and that dopamine partitions into the matrix (K = 2). A packed-bed reactor containing the coimmobilized cell beads successfully produced dopamine, although with a low conversion. Using computer simultaneous it is shown that separate, sequential TPL and TDC, rather than simultaneous, reactions, would require smaller reactors overall for the same conversion.