ABSTRACT
Advances in biotechnology have placed new demands on biochemical reactor engineering. This chapter discusses a class of membrane reactors in which a membrane-phase catalyst brings about net chemical conversion of reactant to product. It focuses particularly on the membrane reactors and their bioprocessing applications in which the catalytic conversion is coupled with a liquid-liquid extraction step and one of the components of the reaction system, either the reactant or catalyst, is biological in nature. The chapter also discusses a family of related liquid-liquid extractive membrane reactors of potential significance in a variety of bioprocessing operations. It also focuses on a progression from multilayer enzyme membrane reactors based on immobilized liquid membranes, through multiphase and extractive enzyme membrane reactors in which the membrane separates immiscible aqueous and organic process streams, and finally to membrane reactors mediating the phase-transfer catalyzed conversion of mutually insoluble reactants.
