Immobilized cells have been studied widely in the last few decades, and an enormous number of papers have been published on this topic. For many processes the complex physiology in a heterogeneous environment is now becoming clear. In addition it has been shown that in many processes it is more efficient to use immobilized cells than suspended cells. The contributions in this volume by scientists from various disciplines in academia, industry and research institutes cover the path from basic physiological research to actual application. One of the goals was to extract guidelines for characterizing immobilized cells in view of process design and application. It is important to recognize that research on immobilized metabolizing cells should eventually lead, whenever possible, to successful implementation of such catalysts in industrial processes, and so one of the aims of using these guidelines is to ensure that research is effective in achieving this objective. A structure was chosen in which general aspects of immobilization as well as kinetics and engineering aspects were covered. Besides laboratory methods, some simple calculation procedures have been presented in this lab manual. The combination of the practical methods with the calculations provide a tool for research with immobilized cells. Finally, the manual concludes with some recent promising and practical cases of immobilized cells as examples of potential applications.

Klappentext

used. Generally in the development of a process, research activity will start with the physiology of the immobilized cells and be concluded by scale-up and application. Guidelines for the different phases in research are given below. Springer Lab Manual about immobilized cells The Springer Lab Manual about immobilized cells is structured in such a way that guidelines that resulted from the conference 'Immobilized Cells: Basics and Applications' were followed and translated into some practical methods. As for the guidelines for immobilized cells a structure was chosen in which general aspects of immobilization were covered, the kinetics were described and engineering aspects were covered. Besides laboratory meth­ ods some simple calculation procedures have been given in this lab man­ ual. The combination of the practical methods with the calculations pro­ vide a tool for carrying out research with immobilized cells. The lab manual concludes with some recent, promising and practical cases of immobilized cells as examples of applications with potential.

Inhalt

Characterization of immobilized cells.-Description of the support material.-Description of the immobilisation procedure.-Measurement of density, particle size and shape of support.-Mechanical stability of the support.-Diffusion coefficients of metabolites.-Quantitity of biomass immobilized, determination of biomass concentration.-Kinetics of the suspended cells.-Diffusion limitation.-Micro-electrodes.-Biomass gradients.-NMR and immobilized cells.-Immobilisation at large scale by dispersion.-Immobilization at large scale by the resonance nozzle technique.-External mass transfer.-Liquid fluidization of gel bead particles.-Gradients in liquid, gas or solid fractions.-Support material stability at the process conditions.-Immobilized cells in food technology: Storage stability, sensitivity to contamination and safety.- And other contributions.-Subject index