EFFECTIVENESS FACTOR CALCULATION FOR IMMOBILIZED GROWING CELL SYSTEMS

Gel immobilised living cell systems represent a special form of hetero geneous catalysis. Due to mass transfer limitations on substrate deliv ery and product removal, time-dependent spatial variations in growth r ate and biomass densities are created. A dynamic mathematical model ha s been developed which was used to simulate the start-up dynamics of g rowing yeast cells in calcium alginate beads. By coupling the transien t model with the effectiveness factor calculation, the ''dynamic effec tiveness factor'' could be calculated. The influence of the bead radiu s and the initial biomass concentration on the dynamic effectiveness f actor have been investigated.