Intensification of the Biocatalytic Oxidation of Phenol with the Use of Activators of Interface Oxygen Transfer

摘要

The transport of oxygen from the gas to the aqueous phase determines the rate of the biocatalytic oxidation of phenol. In this work, activators of the interphase transfer of O_2 are used to intensify the process, thus raising considerably the rate of gas entering the reaction space without additional power consumption, in contrast to the widely used methods of mixing and bubbling. We present the results from studies of the effect a number of substances on the value of K_La at various mixing speeds of 100 to 1200 rpm. The solid–liquid phase and its activators are compared in terms of effectiveness. The maximum K_La increase under different hydrodynamic conditions was achieved for activated carbon (3.7 times), aerosol (1.5 times), n-dodecane (3.1 times). These results are explained by a shuttle mechanism of O_2 phase transfer. It is shown that when K_La is increased from 2.8 to 18.5 h~(–1), the biocatalytic oxidation of phenol is accelerated by a factor of 2.4. Using activated carbon as an activator of O_2 phase transfer allows us to increase the rate of the biocatalytic oxidation of phenol by ~20%.