A CSTR‐hollow fiber system for continuous hydrolysis of proteins. Performance and kinetics

The effect of four operating variables (enzyme concentration, substrate concentration, flow rate, and reaction volume) on the performance of CSTR‐hollow fiber membrane reactor was studied for the continuous hydrolysis of a soy protein isolate using Pronase. Based on a residence time distribution study, the reactor system was modeled as an ideal CSTR in combination with the Michaelis‐Menten equation of enzyme kinetics. This kinetic model correlated conversion with a space‐time parameter modified to include all four independent variables. An empirical model based on curvilinear regression analysis was also developed. Both models predicted conversion fairly well, although the kinetic model slightly underpredicts at high conversion.