A hydrodynamic mechanism for the disintegration of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in an industrial homogenizer

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Abstract
Amongst the commercial type of homogenizers the Manton‐GaulinAPV homogenizer (APV Company Ltd., Crawley, Surrey, England) which is generally being used for other purposes than cell disintegration processes, has recently been proved to be effective for the breakage of yeast cells. To understand fully the disintegration process occurring in such machines it becomes necessary to describe their functions through mathematical expressionsbased on a realistic hydrodynamic model.A mathematical expression describing the protein release at an applied pressure has been derived from an energy balance in the homogenizer combined with the size distribution function of yeast cell population. This expression has been confirmed experimentally under conditions where it shows that turbulence is the controlling factor in the system. Furthermore it indicates the area where more investigations are needed to improve the efficiency of the process of disintegration.