Abstract

BIOREACTOR STUDIES ON PRODUCTION OF ?-GALACTOSIDASE

Dr. Pavani Anumukonda*, T. Prabhkar and M. Bhagavan Raju

ABSTRACT

β-Galactosidase enzymes continue to play an important role in food and pharmaceutical industries. These enzymes hydrolyze lactose in its constituent monosaccharides, glucose and galactose. The industrial use of enzymes presents an increase in process costs reflecting in higher final product value. Different types of fermenter are used for the production of β-Galactosidase enzyme. The conversion of a laboratory procedure to an industrial process is termed as scale up. A process which works well at the laboratory scale may work poorly or not at all when attempted at large scale. It is generally not possible to take fermentation conditions that have worked in the laboratory and blindly apply them to industrial-scale equipment. Fermenter, a system consisting of a few pieces of equipment which provide controlled environmental conditions for the growth of microbes (and/or the production of specific metabolites) in liquid culture whilst preventing entry and growth of contaminating microbes from the outside environment. Different types of fermenters were used for the production of β-galactosidase are Stirred tank reactor (STR), Spinner tank reactor, air lift fermenter. The following parameters like viscosity, pH, PMV and β-galactosidase activity were determined. β-galactosidase production (445.8 U/gm) was observed in a bioreactor as compared to enzyme production (256.8 U/gm) at shake flask level.

Keywords: ?-galactosidase, Fermenter, Stirred tank reactor (STR), Spinner tank reactor, and air lift fermenter.