2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
(569et) Reactor Scale Modeling for Cell-Free Conversion of Cellulosic Glucose to Terpenes
Authors
Our numerical model solves the flow and transport equations with enzymatic chemistry within a finite volume framework using the OpenFOAM library. We also compare plug flow models with our multi-dimensional simulations in this work. Our work shows that enzyme loading and starting co-factor concentration can significantly affect the final product yield. We studied the impact of hexokinase loading and phosphate initial concentration on the final limonene product yield. The reactor design can also significantly impact the transport of chemical species which will affect the reaction rate and the yield of the conversion of glucose to products. In this work, the design parameters of a fixed bed reactor we studied are the length/width ratio, bed porosity and fluid flow rate, as shown in Figure 1. We also perform simulations of horizontal flow in a rotating fixed bed reactor geometries for improving product yield in this study.
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[2] Korman, T.P., Opgenorth, P.H. and Bowie, J.U., 2017. Nature communications, 8(1), p.15526.