Maltodextrin hydrolysis in a fluidized‐bed immobilized enzyme reactor

Abstract
The present work deals with maltodextrin hydrolysis by glucoamylase immobilized onto corn stover in a fluidized bed reactor. An industrial enzyme preparation was covalently grafted onto corn stover, yielding an activity of up to 372 U/g and 1700 U/g for support particle sizes of 0.8 and 0.2 mm, respectively. A detailed kinetic study, using a differential reactor, allowed the characterization of the influence of mass transfer resistance on the reaction catalyzed by immobilized glucoamylase. A simple and general mathematical model was then developed to describe the experimental conversion data and found to be valid.