Design of a Fluidized Bed Reactor for Microencapsulated Urease

Abstract

A fluidized bed reactor was designed, constructed, and tested for handling microencapsulated urease. The working volume of the reactor was 10 mL, with a minimum fluidization velocity of 7.7 × 10⁻⁵ m/s. An even suspension of the microcapsules was obtained at fluid velocities between 1.5 × 10 ⁴ and 6.0 × 10⁻⁴ m/s without breakage of the shear-sensitive microcapsules. The mixing behavior in the reactor was evaluated using pulse input tracer experiments and the hydrolysis rates of urea in continuous flow experiments were evaluated under various operating conditions.

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