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Improved reactor performance and operability in the biotransformation of carveol to carvone using a solid–liquid two‐phase partitioning bioreactor

In an effort to improve reactor performance and process operability, the microbial biotransformation of (−)‐trans‐carveol to (R)‐(−)‐carvone by hydrophobic Rhodococcus erythropolis DCL14 was carried out in a two phase partitioning bioreactor (TPPB) with solid polymer beads acting as the partitioning phase. Previous work had demonstrated that the substrate and product become inhibitory to the organism at elevated aqueous concentrations and the use of an immiscible second phase in the bioreactor was intended to provide a reservoir for substrates to be delivered to the aqueous phase based on the metabolic rate of the cells, while also acting as a sink to uptake the product as it is produced. The biotransformation was previously undertaken in a two liquid phase TPPB with 1‐dodecene and with silicone oil as the immiscible second phase and, although improvement in the reactor performance was obtained relative to a single phase system, the hydrophobic nature of the organism caused the formation of severe emulsions leading to significant operational challenges. In the present work, eight types of polymer beads were screened for their suitability for use in a solid–liquid TPPB for this biotransformation. The use of selected solid polymer beads as the second phase completely prevented emulsion formation and therefore improved overall operability of the reactor. Three modes of solid–liquid TPPB operation were considered: the use of a single polymer bead type (styrene/butadiene copolymer) in the reactor, the use of a mixture of polymer beads in the reactor (styrene/butadiene copolymer plus Hytrel® 8206), and the use of one type of polymer beads in the reactor (styrene/butadiene copolymer), and another bead type (Hytrel® 8206) in an external column through which fermentation medium was recirculated. This last configuration achieved the best reactor performance with 7 times more substrate being added throughout the biotransformation relative to a single aqueous phase benchmark reactor and 2.7 times more substrate being added relative to the best two liquid TPPB case. Carvone was quantitatively recovered from the polymer beads via single stage extraction into methanol, allowing for bead re‐use. Biotechnol. Bioeng. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.