Continuous hydrolysis of carboxymethyl cellulose with cellulase aggregates trapped inside membranes.

Le Truc Nguyen, Kristyn Rui Shan Neo, Kun-Lin Yang

Index: Enzyme Microb. Technol. 78 , 34-9, (2015)

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Abstract

Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is often conducted in batch processes in which hydrolytic products tend to inhibit enzyme activity. In this study, we report a method for continuous hydrolysis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by using cross-linked cellulase aggregate (XCA) trapped inside a membrane. XCA particles prepared by using a millifluidic reactor have a uniform size distribution around 350 nm. Because of their large size, XCA particles in solutions can be filtered through a polyethersulfone membrane to collect 87.1 ± 0.9% of XCA particles. The membrane with impregnated XCA can be used as a catalyst for hydrolysis of CMC in a continuous mode. When the CMC concentration is 1.0 g/l and the flow rate is 2 μl/min, 53.9% of CMC is hydrolyzed to reducing sugars. The membrane with XCA is very stable under continuously flowing solutions. After 72 h of reaction, 97.5% of XCA remains inside the membrane.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.