A packed bed bioreactor is loaded with calcium alginate spheres containing immobilized enzyme which converts glucose to ethanol and CO2. The bioreactor has an internal diameter of 10 cm, a packed height of 1 m, and is operated isothermally at 30°C under steady state conditions. An aqueous glucose solution (50 g/L glucose) is continuously fed to the bioreactor at a dilution rate of 0.9 h-1.
If the reaction rate in the bioreactor is 0.0001 mol glucose/s/litre of immobilized phase, and if the yield coefficient for the reaction is 0.48 g ethanol/g glucose, estimate the ethanol and glucose concentrations in the product stream from the system. Assume the CO2 is removed as a separate phase. The immobilized phase constitutes 60 vol% of the reactor volume