Application of a novel type impinging streams reactor in solid-liquid enzyme reactions and modeling of residence time distribution using GDB model

Identification and Immobilization of an Invertase With High Specific Activity and Sucrose Tolerance Ability of Gongronella sp. w5 for High Fructose Syrup Preparation

Invertases catalyze the hydrolysis of sucrose into fructose and glucose and can be employed as an alternative in producing high fructose syrup. In this study, we reported the heterologous expression of an invertase gene (GspInv) of Gongronella sp. w5 in Komagataella pastoris. GspInv activity reached 147.6 ± 0.4 U/mL after 5 days of methanol induction. GspInv is invertase with a high specific activity of 2,776.1 ± 124.2 U/mg toward sucrose. GspInv showed high tolerance to sucrose (IC 5 0 = 1.2 M), glucose (IC 5 0 > 2 M), fructose (IC 5 0 = 1.5 M), and a variety of metal ions that make it an ideal candidate for high fructose syrup production. A carbohydrate-binding module was sequence-optimized and fused to the N-terminus of GspInv. The fusion protein had the highest immobilization efficiency at room temperature within 1 h adsorption, with 1 g of cellulose absorption up to 8,000 U protein. The cellulose-immobilized fusion protein retained the unique properties of GspInv. When applied in high fructose syrup preparation by using 1 M sucrose as the substrate, the sucrose conversion efficiency of the fused protein remained at approximately 95% after 50 h of continuous hydrolysis on a packed bed reactor. The fused protein can also hydrolyze completely the sucrose in sugarcane molasses. Our results suggest that GspInv is an unusual invertase and a promising candidate for high fructose syrup preparation.

Numerical Simulations of a Gas–Solid Two-Phase Impinging Stream Reactor with Dynamic Inlet Flow

Fluid flow characteristics and particle motion behavior of an impinging stream reactor with dynamic inlet flow (both inlet velocity patterns exhibit step variation) are investigated and discussed with the computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method (CFD–DEM). The effect of T (variation period of the dynamic inlet flow) and ∆u (inlet velocity difference) on the motion characteristics of single and multiple particles, as well as the mean particle residence time, are studied and discussed. The research results indicate that, compared with the traditional impinging stream reactor (both inlet velocities are equal and constant) with equal mean inlet velocity (um) within one period, the impinging surface is instantaneously moving and the flow regime is varied with time in the impinging stream reactor with dynamic inlet flow. The impinging stream reactor with dynamic inlet flow provides higher cost performance over the traditional impinging stream reactor, under equal um, in terms of single-particle residence time. Moreover, three new particle motion modes exist in multi-particle motions of the impinging stream reactor with dynamic inlet flow; particles are accelerated by the original or reverse fluid and perform oscillatory motion at least once after an interparticle collision. Whether it is a single particle or multi-particles, the mean particle residence time reaches a maximum value when T/2 is approximately equal to the first particle acceleration time, since the maximum axial kinetic energy increases in every oscillatory motion compared with traditional impinging stream, and the number of oscillatory motions is increasing. The mean residence time of a particle in the impinging stream reactor with a dynamic inlet flow increases with increasing ∆u, since the dynamic inlet conditions and increasing ∆u can continuously supply more energy to particles and thus cause more particles to enter one of the three new modes of particle motion.