Mechanical stability and diffusional resistance of a polymeric gel used for biocatalyst immobilization.

The mechanical strength of gelatin gels insolubilized by crosslinking with formaldehyde was measured at various gelatin percentages and formaldehyde-to-gelatin ratios. This property was shown to be related to the characteristic sponge-like structure of the insolubilized gelatin gel, a structure that unexpectedly is also responsible for the resistance to substrate and product diffusion. A comparison between immobilizates of invertase and invertase-active yeast cells prepared with different gelatin concentrations showed that the enzyme, in contrast to cells, is deeply involved in the gel insolubilization process.

Enzyme immobilization by means of ultrafiltration techniques.

Unstirred, plane membrane, ultrafiltration cells have been used as enzymatic reactor units. Because of the concentration polarization phenomena which take place in the system, at steady-state the enzyme is confined (dynamically immobilized) within an extremely narrow region upstream the ultrafiltration membrane. Correspondingly its concentration attains fairly high values.