ENTIRELY AUTOMATED GLUCOSE MONITORING-SYSTEM BASED ON A FLOW-INJECTION ANALYSIS APPARATUS

A process for waste whey treatment, fully based on membrane technologi es, has been studied and developed in a pilot plant scale, with the ai m to recover chemicals from farm wastes (fats, whey proteins, lactose, salts and water). This process, described in its essential steps, inc ludes a hollow fiber membrane reactor for the hydrolysis of lactose wi th an immobilized beta-galactosidase. The bioreactor performances are studied, in a lab scale, with an entirely automated glucose monitoring system based on a flow injection analysis apparatus. The monitoring s ystem shows interesting performances concerning signal stability, exte nded linearity (up to 150 mmol l-1) and long term monitoring (up to 3 months without manual operations). The performances of the glucose mon itoring system are described.