Solid/gas bioreactors: powerful tools for fundamental research and efficient technology for industrial applications

Abstract

Solid–gas biocatalysis appears today to be a promising technology for fundamental research and for the development of new cleaner industrial processes. The use of enzymes or whole cells at the solid–gas interface now appears concurrent to liquid processes and presents some very interesting features since total thermodynamic control of the system can be achieved easily. Moreover, from a technological point of view, solid–gas systems offer very high production rates for minimal plant sizes, allow important reduction of treated volumes and permit simplified downstream processes. These advantages result from the ability to precisely control all the thermodynamic parameters influencing not only the kinetics of the reactions performed, but also the stability of the biocatalysts working with biological catalysts at elevated temperatures. In this article, an overview of some existing systems and application of solid–gas technology to fundamental studies related to the influence of the microenvironment on biocatalysts is given. The potential of this peculiar system, and examples of applications that should benefit from the technology are presented herein.