How performance of integrated systems of reaction and separation relates to that of parallel and sequential configurations

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2000

Authors

Paiva, AL (Author) Other; F. Xavier Malcata (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Bioprocess Engineering

Vol. 22

Pages: 149-158

ISSN: 0178-515X

Publisher: Springer

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

Scopus - 4 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-001-0VT

DOI: 10.1007/s004490050024

Abstract (EN): Given the thermodynamic and kinetic limitations which often constrain the extent of chemical reactions and post-reactional separation processes, and therefore constrain the yield and the degree of purity of the resulting products, integration of reaction and separation in a single unit has been under the scope of several bioengineering researchers in recent years. It is the aim of this work to compare the performance of a cascade of N reactor/separator sets, either in series or in parallel, with that of an integrated reaction/separation unit. In order to do so, a Michaelis-Menten reaction in dilute substrate solutions (i.e. a pseudo first order reaction) was considered to take place in either configuration and, under the same reaction and separation conditions, comparison of the performance and efficiency of these configurations was made in terms of fractional recovery of pure product, total time required to achieve such recovery and rate of recovery. It was concluded that: (i) the series combination of reactor/separator sets yields better results, both in terms of fractional amount of product recovered and time required to do so, than the parallel combination; and (ii) the integrated approach is much more time- and cost-effective than plain cascading, thus making it very attractive from an economic point of view.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 10