entrapment of bacillus licheniformis cells in alginate gel for proteolytic enzymes production

The use of immobilized living cells as biocatalysts represent a new and rapidly growing trend in industrial biotechnology. In this work the immobilization in calcium alginate capsules, viability, and proteolytic activity of a local strain of Bacillus licheniformis was studied. After entrapment end drying, the number of viable cells has stabilized at 1,7 x 105 cells/wet capsule of alginate and 3,5 x 102 cells/dry capsule of alginate. The protease productivity was 17% higher in first batch in the culture of immobilized cells (683 units/liter) than in free cell culture (580 units/liter). The protease productivity was very low in the case of dry biocatalyst (94% lower than in the culture with wet biocatalyst, or 43 units/liter), due to the death of a large amount of entrapped cells.