Abstract
An attempt was made to scale up the microporous hydrophobic membrane bioreactor with special regard to the lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis of fat. The continuous glycerolysis of olive oil was carried out using Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase with single and multiple piled-up units of the flat microporous polypropylene membrane Bioreactor developed by the authors. Membrane area ranged from 0.0726m2 to 1.16m2 (16-fold scale-up). Two operational modes of the multiple piled-up units, i.e., parallel flow and series flow, were compared. Despite different membrane areas and regardless of these different operational modes, the relationship between conversion and oil flow rate per sheet of membrane was the same and that between the relative content of monoglyceride, diglyceride and triglyceride in the product and the oil flow rate per sheet was also the same. The development of the bioreactor might be attained using the criterion based on (oil flow rate) / (total membrane area) as long as the same membrane and configuration are used.
