CARRIER MATERIAL FOR IMMOBILIZING MICROORGANISMS

摘要

Carrier material to immobilize microorganisms. In known carrier materials in bioreactors the reactor is frequently clogged with microorganisms or organic compounds. The new carrier material ensures that microorganisms or animal cells can be immobilized in high volume concentration without any clogging of the reactor taking place. This objective is achieved in that spheres are used as the carrier material, these consisting--on the one hand--of an open-pore, inorganic sintered body that has in its interior continuous pores that are open to the outside, within which microorganisms and animal cells can be immobilized and multiply and which--on the other hand--are of a density and a diameter such that in a temporary vortex-bed flow the shear force of the spheres is sufficient to shear off the microorganisms or animal cells growing out of the interior of the spheres and/or on the surface of said spheres. The present invention makes it possible to combine the advantages of a fixed-bed reactor with those of a vortexbed reactor, and to avoid the disadvantages inherent in both of these. The carrier material according to the present invention is not restricted to breaking down communal and industrial waste water; it can be used for the biological extraction of essential-nutrient and pharmacological substances and the products of fermentation.