Abstract
A new type of enzyme reactor was developed, which was based on the fact that enzymes usually migrated faster than substrates and products in a gel chromatographic column. The reactor could allow repeated use of an enzyme without chemical or physical immobilization of the enzyme. The reactor, which was constructed by two columns packed with a gel chromatographic resin, included six steps of operation. In only one step, an enzyme was put on the reactor. By repeating consecutively four steps of six, a substrate could be continuously converted to a product without further addition of the enzyme. In terms of the hydrolysis of maltose to glucose by glucoamylase, it was experimentally demonstrated that the enzyme reactor proposed here could be successfully operated for a long period.
