Analysis of membrane reactor performance for hydrolysis of starch by glucoamylase

Recently Shah and Remmenl analyzed the performance of a membrane reactor (i.e., porous wall reactor with suction) for the case of a first order reaction. The concept of the membrane reactor is presently useful for a number of enzymatic reactions,2.3 in particular the hydrolysis of starch to glucose by the enzyme glu~oamylase.~ This is a reaction of potential industrial interest and there are commercial membranes available such as PM-10 (Amicon Corp., Lexinmn, Mass.), Cambridge, Mass.), and OSMOTIK-215 (Calgon-Havens Systems, Sen Diego, Calif.) which can efficiently separate glucose from the enzyme and starch. Since starch hydrolysis is, in general, more complex than first order, in this communication we extend the analysis of Shah and Remmenl for this reaction.