(620ap) Effect of Transducer Position on Performance of an Enzyme Catalyzed Ultrasonic Reactor

Enzymes are biological catalysts in the form of protein which catalyze chemical reactions. They are highly active and specific and are capable of functioning at milder operating conditions. For industrial scale applications enzymes are immobilized on a carrier material (immobilized enzymes) in order to facilitate their separation from products and subsequent reuse. However, immobilization of causes a lowering of their activity owing to mass transfer resistance. Application of ultrasound (US) is found to be effective to overcome this limitation [1, 2]. In order to efficiently utilize ultrasound for industrial processes it is necessary to study the effect of different influencing parameters on performance of ultrasonic reactor. One of the key influencing parameters is the position of ultrasonic source. In context of the present work effect of ultrasonic source position on performance of ultrasonic reactor is investigated in a systematic manner by selecting an example reaction system. The results show that for a given energy input performance of reactor varies by varying the position of sound source. This observation is evident that a wrong positioning of the source in reactor will result in wastage of energy and thereby affecting the economy of the process.

[1]        P.Schmidt; Ultrasonics, Vol. 25, PP 295-299; 1987
[2]        Sang Hyun Lee; Process Biochemistry, Vol. 43, PP 1009–1012; 2008