(1) Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a process for preparing immobilized enzymes in a short period of time and in large amounts and to an apparatus useful for carrying out the process. This invention may advantageously be applied to the preparation of immobilized enzymes used in the operation of a bioreactor.
(2) Description of the Prior Art:
A variety of techniques for preparing immobilized enzymes to be used in a bioreactor are known, for example, it is known that liquid drops or droplets may be produced by forcing an enzyme-containing liquid from the tip of a small nozzle under a given pressure using a compressed gas, in addition to the entrapping immobilization method using carrageenan as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,292 to Chibata et al.
In these methods, a mixture of a sodium alginate solution or an aqueous carrageenan solution with a microorganism is dropped in an aqueous solution of a gelling agent such as calcium chloride to produce entrapped microorganism gel granules. These conventional methods are however still disadvantageous in the granulation ability when large quantities of the gel granules are desired to be produced. They also involve the problem that suspended drops are formed on the jet of the nozzle, thereby requiring occasional wiping of the nozzle tip. Thus, none of these methods has been regarded as appropriate for treating a large amount of microorganism in a short period of time.