Abstract

This research focuses on the continuous hydrolysis of sucrose by invertase immobilized in alginate gel. In the continuous bioreactor, the inversion of saccharose was effected by the reaction temperature and by the dilution rate of the system. Our experimental results show that: During the first hours, the activity of immobilized invertase at high temperature (55 °C) was higher than that of immobilized invertase at low temperature (35 °C). However, the enzyme activity decreased significantly during the following period of hydrolysis. The half-life of immobilized invertase at 55°C and 35 °C was 4 and 95 days, respectively. Increase in dilution rate of the system raised its productivity but decreased the hydrolytic yield of sucrose inversion. With the dilution rate of system is 0,12 and 0,17h", the hydrolytic yield of sucrose inversion after 7 days was 82 and 72%, respectively.