THE EFFECT OF SYNTHETIC JET ON ENZYME ACTIVITY

Mixing of shear sensitive materials such as enzyme and microorganisms is applied in a number of biological and pharmaceutical processes. Conventional mixing process is normally associated with high shear stresses that can introduce changes at the molecular level of the shear sensitive materials, which can have a far reaching effect on their activity and functionality. In addition, it draws relatively high energy as induction motor with a gearbox is usually used. For instance, when high shear rates or high operation temperatures are applied, the enzyme and microorganisms tend to denaturalise and degrade, respectively. The objective of current study is to use the synthetic jet mixer to reduce the rate of denaturalisation of enzyme in aqueous form and power consumption for optimum mixing to enhance the rate of enzymatic reaction. A novel flow pulsing mechanism to generate a mixing jet termed ‘synthetic jet’ using solenoid actuator is used in this study. The later one is attached to Teflon diaphragm at the bottom of predesigned 3L reactor to reduce power consumption in bench-top synthetic jet apparatus. The effect of the displacement, oscillation frequency, input signal and operating temperature on the enzyme denaturalisation rate is studied to optimise the enzymatic reaction rate. The results gives that synthetic jet mixer is better mixing compared with conventional overhead stirrer. It has 10.3% higher enzymatic reaction rate, 10.9% lesser of enzyme denaturalization rate as well as 14.5% less power consumption compared.