Hydroxylation of L-tyrosine to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) by immobilized tyrosinase in the presence of ascorbic acid (AH2), which reduces DOPA-quinone to L-DOPA, is characterized by low reaction yields that are mainly caused by the suicide inactivation of tyrosinase by L-DOPA and AH2. The main aim of this work was to compare processes with native and immobilized tyrosinase to identify the conditions that limit suicide inactivation and produce substrate conversions to L-DOPA of above 50% using HPLC analysis. It was shown that immobilized tyrosinase does not suffer from partitioning and diffusion effects, allowing a direct comparison of the reactions performed with both forms of the enzyme. In typical processes, additional aeration was applied and boron ions to produce the L-DOPA and AH2 complex and hydroxylamine to close the cycle of enzyme active center transformations. It was shown that the commonly used pH 9 buffer increased enzyme stability, with concomitant reduced reactivity of 76%, and that under these conditions, the maximal substrate conversion was approximately 25 (native) to 30% (immobilized enzyme). To increase reaction yield, the pH of the reaction mixture was reduced to 8 and 7, producing L-DOPA yields of approximately 95% (native enzyme) and 70% (immobilized). A three-fold increase in the bound enzyme load achieved 95% conversion in two successive runs, but in the third one, tyrosinase lost its activity due to strong suicide inactivation caused by L-DOPA processing. In this case, the cost of the immobilized enzyme preparation is not overcome by its reuse over time, and native tyrosinase may be more economically feasible for a single use in L-DOPA production. The practical importance of the obtained results is that highly efficient hydroxylation of monophenols by tyrosinase can be obtained by selecting the proper reaction pH and is a compromise between complexation and enzyme reactivity.

This paper focuses on using an enzyme membrane reactor (EMR) for the effective continuous decolorization of Acid Blue 62 (AB62). The following factors were considered for the effective use of Cerrena unicolor laccase immobilized in the EMR volume: the enzyme was stable in six successive runs in a batch reactor; no aeration was necessary; AB62 and the oxidized products were sorbed onto the membrane but were not rejected; and the enzyme was stable in the EMR system. It is obvious that any continuous process must be predictable, and thus, the objective was to verify the process model experimentally. For this reason, a proper isoenzyme kinetic equation was selected and the parameters were evaluated. The obtained kinetic parameters were used to plan processes and to verify their applicability to long-term AB62 decolorization, and a very good agreement between the calculated and the measured data was obtained. In the main designed continuous decolorization process, the conversion reached 98 % and was stable for 4 days. The membrane reactor with C. unicolor laccase appears to be very promising for AB62 decolorization.

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